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Books on 

Egypt AND Chaldaea 



VOL IV 



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BOOKS ON 
EGYPT AND CHALD/EA. 



Br E. A. WALLIS BUDGE, M.A., Litt.D., D.Lit., 

Keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in 
the British Museum, 

AND 

L. W. KING, M.A., 

Assistant in the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in 
the British Museum. 



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Vol. I. — Egyptian Beligfion : Egyptian Ideas of the 
Future Life. By E. A. Wallis Budge. 

Vol. II. — Egyptian Magic. By E. A. Wallis Budge. 

Vol. III. — Egyptian language : Easy Lessons in Egyptian 
Hieroglyphics. By E. A. Wallis Budge. 

Vol. IV. — Babylonian Keligion: Babylonian Religion and 
Mythology. By L. W. King. 

Vol. V. — Assyrian Language : Easy Lessons in Cuneiform 
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Vols. VI., VIL, VIII.— The Book of the Dead. An EngUsh 
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Vol. IV. 



BABYLONIAN RELIGION AND 
MYTHOLOGY 



PUBLISHERS' NOTE. 



In the year 1894 Dr. Wallis Budge prepared for Messrs. Kegan 
Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., an elementary work on the 
Egyptian language, entitled " First Steps in Egyptian," and two years 
later the companion volume, "An Egyptian Reading Book," with 
transliterations of all the texts printed in it, and a full vocabulary. 
The success of these works proved that they had helped to satisfy 
a want long felt by students of the Egyptian language, and as a 
similar want existed among students of the languages written in 
the cuneiform character, Mr. L. W. King, of the British Museum, 
prepared, on the same lines as the two books mentioned above, 
an elementary work on the Assyrian and Babylonian languages 
("First Steps in Assyrian"), which appeared in 1898. These 
works, however, dealt mainly with the philological branch of 
Egyptology and Assyriology, and it was impossible in the space 
allowed to explain much that needed explanation in the other 
branches of these subjects — ^that is to say, matters relating to the 
archaeology, history, religion, etc., of the Egyptians, Assyrians, and 
Babylonians. In answer to the numerous requests which have 
been made, a series of short, popular handbooks, on the most 
important branches of Egyptology and Assyriology has been pre- 
pared, and it is hoped that these will serve as introductions to the 
larger works on these subjects. The present is the fourth volume 
of the series, and the succeeding volumes will be published at short 
intervals, and at moderate prices. 



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BABYLONIAN RELIGION 

AND 

MYTHOLOGY 



L. W. KING, M.A., F.S.A. 

ASSISTANT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES, 
BRITISH MUSEUM 



WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS 
SECOND IMPRESSION 



LONDON 

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., Lt? 

PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD 

1903 



PRINTED BV 

WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 

LONDON AND BECCLES. 



tThe rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved^ 
{ 



PREFACE. 



The object of the present work is to offer to the reader 
in a handy 'form an account of the principal facts 
concerning Babylonian religion and mythology. This 
account is based upon the cuneiform inscriptions which 
have been excavated in Mesopotamia during the last 
fifty-five years, and, as far as possible, the Semitic 
peoples of the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates have 
been made to reveal their religious beliefs and super- 
stitions by means of their own writings. Although 
so much has been done in recent years to explain their 
religious literature, no finality in the matter must be 
expected for some time to come, certainly not as long 
as any important religious text remains unpublished. 
The fragmentary nature of the available material alone 
is a great obstacle to the construction of any consecutive 
narrative, and to the correct grouping of facts, while 
the renderings of rare Sumerian words and complex 
ideograms in some cases offer almost insuperable 



VI PREFACE. 

difficulties. Moreover, the variations in the translations 
made by English and German scholars proclaim the 
difficulty of the subject, and no systematic and final 
description of the religion of Babylonia and Assyria 
is at present possible. In the preparation of this little 
book the works of the most trustworthy writers on the 
subject have been diligently consulted, and the trans- 
lations of cuneiform texts given in the following pages 
have been specially prepared for the purpose. Every 
endeavour has also been made to incorporate the results 
obtained from recently discovered texts, to which in all 
important cases references are given. 

From the facts here printed it is clear that the 
Babylonians and Assyrians believed in a series of 
nature gods, and that they had no conception of the 
existence of one supreme and almighty God. The 
worship of their gods was tinctured with magic, and 
many of their prayers and formulae which they recited 
during the performance of their religious ceremonies 
can be regarded as little else than spells, charms, and 
incantations. Although little by little a higher idea 
of the majesty of certain gods was developed, and 
although the Babylonian's conception of a man's duty 
towards them and towards his neighbour eventually 
became of a comparatively high moral character, he 
never succeeded in freeing himself from a belief in the 



PREFACE. Vll 

power of magic, sorcery and witchcraft. He attached 
great importance to the performance of burial cere- 
monies, imagining that his arrival in the next world 
depended absolutely upon them; but the life which 
he believed the soul would lead after death in the 
underworld seems to have been of a peculiarly joyless 
character. 

Owing to want of space no attempt has been made 
to discuss from a comparative point of view the legends 
of the cosmogony and the deluge written in cuneiform, 
and only the most obvious parallels between parts 
of them and certain chapters of Genesis have been 
drawn. It was unnecessary to treat the subject ex- 
haustively, as it is now generally admitted by scholars 
that the writers of the Pentateuch drew upon the 
traditions of Babylonia for a number of the statements 
made in the early chapters of Genesis. 

I take this opportunity of expressing my indebt- 
edness to the works of Delitzsch, Jensen, Gunkel, 
Zimmern, Jeremias, Jastrow, and others, and of 
thanking Dr. Wallis Budge for his great help in the 
preparation of the work. 



L. W. KING. 



London, 

October 7th, 1899. 



CONTENTS. 



I. The Gods of Babylon ,.. „. ... i 

II. Heaven, Eakth, and Hell ... ... 27 

HI. The Legends or Creation ... ... ... 53 

IV. The Stoet of the Deluge ... ... 121 

V. Tales of Gods and Hekoes ... ... ... 146 

VI. The Dutt of Man to his God and to ms Neighbouk 200 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



CHAPTER rAGE 

I. The Moojt-God ... ... ... ... 15 

The Sun-God ... ... ... ... 19 

II. The Eastern Door of Heaven ... ... 32 

The Gods of the Undekworli) ... ... 39 

III. The Fight between Makduk and Tiamat 75, 102 
Scene beside a Sacked Tkf.e ... ... 113 

IV. A Babylonian Ship ... ... ... ... 131 

V. GiLGAMESH AND BA-BANI ... ... ... 162 

Crossing the Waters of Death ... ... 170 

The Goddess Ishtak ... ... ... 182 

The South-West Wind ... ... ... 189 

VI. A Babylonian Demon ... ... ... 203 



BABYLONIAN RELIGION 
AND MYTHOLOGY. 



CHAPTER I.' 

THE GODS OF BABYLON. 

It was at one time the fashion with many scholars to 
regard the civilization of the Babylonians as of a purely 
Semitic origin ; and more than one writer on the 
religion of that country has moulded his work on the 
fundamental thesis that the Semitic Babylonians and 
they alone were the originators of the complicated 
system of religious practise and belief which we know 
existed from a very early period upon the banks of the 
Euphrates. Eecent excavations in Babylonia, however, 
have proved one fact with absolute certainty — that 
before the Semites ever reached Babylonia a non- 
Semitic race occupied the country, tilled the land, 
tended herds of cattle, built cities, dug canals, and 
advanced to a state of considerable civilization. But 

BAB. EEL. B 



2 THE ANCIENT SUMERIANS. 

there are indications that even this race, the Sumerians ^ 
as they are called, were not the first possessors of the 
land. It is probable that they themselves were settlers 
like the Semites of a later time, and that they reached 
the fertile valley of the rivers from some mountainous 
home in the northern half of Central Asia. Who 
occupied the country before the Sumerians came we 
cannot say, for of the aboriginal inhabitants of the land 
we know nothing. The first inhabitants of Babylonia 
of whom we have definite knowledge are the Sumerians ; 
and during recent years our knowledge of them has 
been vastly increased. In any treatment of the 
religious beliefs of the Semitic Babylonians, the 
existence of the Sumerians cannot be ignored, for they 
profoundly influenced the faith of the Semitic invaders 
before whose onslaught their empire fell. The religious 
beliefs of the Babylonians cannot be rightly under- 
stood unless at the outset this foreign influence is duly 
recognized. 

To what date we are to assign the beginning of 
Sumerian influence in Babylonia it is quite impossible 
to say, though such a date as six or seven thousand years 
before Christ is not an extravagant estimate for the foun- 
dation of the earliest religious centres * in the country. 
The decline of the political power of the Sumerians, on 

' The Sumerians take their name from "Shumeru," an ancient 
name for Soutliern Babylonia. 
^ E.g., Nippur, Ur, Shirpurla, etc. 



INFLUENCE OF SUMERIAN BELIEFS. 3 

the other hand, may be assigned approximately to the 
period which lies between B.C. 2500 and B.C. 2300. At 
the latter date Babylon had been raised to a position 
of pre-eminence among the cities of the land, and the 
Semitic population in the country had gained a com- 
plete ascendancy over their ancient rivals, whom they 
gradually absorbed ; from this time onwards the city of 
Babylon maintained her position and never ceased to 
be the capital of the country to which in later times 
she gave her name. But in spite of the early date to 
which we must put back the beginnings of Babylonian 
civilization, it is only among the remains of a very 
much later period that we find adequate materials for 
the study of the Babylonian religion. It is true that 
during the long course of the history of that country 
and of Assyria we get occasional glimpses of the 
religious beliefs and legends, which were current at dif- 
ferent periods, from the historical and votive inscrip- 
tions of kings and governors. But it is only at quite 
a late date, that is to say a few years before the fall of 
Nineveh, that we gain a comparatively full knowledge 
of Babylonian mythology and belief. 

The great religious works of the Babylonians are 
known to us from"";^ documents which do not date from 
an earlier period than the seventh century B.o. In the 
palaces that were unearthed at Kuyunjik, the site of 
Nineveh, there were found, scattered through the 
mounds of earth, thousands of clay tablets written in 



4 THE SCRIBES OF ASSYRIA. 

the Assyrian character, and in many cases with colo- 
phons bearing the name of Ashur-bani-pal and the state- 
ment that he had caused them to be included in his 
library. This monarch reigned from B.C. 669 to about 
B.C. 625, and, though one of the last kings to occupy 
the Assyrian throne, he made strenuous efforts to pre- 
serve the ancient literature of Babylonia and Assyria. 
His scribes visited specially the ancient cities and 
temples in the south, and made copies of literary com- 
positions of all classes which they found there. These 
they collected and arranged in his palace at Nineveh, 
and it is from them that the greater part of our know- 
ledge of Babylonian mythology and religion is derived. 
Though the tablets date from the seventh century 
only, it is possible that the texts inscribed upon them 
had their origin in a very remote period, and a detailed 
study of them proves that such was the case. If, for 
instance, two or more copies of a text are found to differ 
greatly in detail from one another, we naturally assume 
that a considerable period has elapsed for such varia- 
tions to have crept into the text. Besides this, the im- 
perfect condition of many of the originals from which 
the scribes made their copies, the notes and colophons 
they added to the texts, and the lists and commentaries 
they compiled to explain them, prove the antiquity of 
the literature they studied. Such evidence is con- 
clusive that the religious literature the Assyrians 
have left us Mas not of their own production, but was 



THEIR COPIES OF EARLY TEXTS. 5 

their inheritance from an earlier time. While the 
Babylonians in their religious beliefs were profoundly 
influenced by the Sumerians, they in their turn 
exercised an even greater influence on the Assyrians. 
The latter people, at first but a handful of colonists 
from Babylonia, took with them the faith of their 
mother country, and, though they subsequently gained 
their independence, and after many centuries of conflict 
held the elder branch of their race in subjection, their 
system of religion, with but few changes and modifica- 
tions, was Babylonian to the core. Hence their 
religious works and writings may be used as material 
for the study of the Babylonian religion. 

When we examine these Assyrian tablets, and 
attempt to gain from them a knowledge of the gods 
of Babylon, we find they present us with a truly 
bewildering number of deities. The Babylonians and 
Assyrians were a conservative people, and the priestly 
class, to whose labours we are indebted for our know- 
ledge of the Babylonian religion, faithfully collected 
and chronicled all local traditions atfd beliefs, no 
matter whence they came. Their religion was still a 
living thing, and they had not lost belief in the existence 
or the power of the gods, but they studied their national 
traditions to some extent from their literary side ; and 
they sought to classify and arrange into some system 
the numerous and sometimes conflicting traditions 
which had arisen and obtained currency at different 



6 LISTS OF THE GODS. 

periods in quite different parts of the country. The 
largest tablet that has been recovered from Ashur- 
bani-pal's library, for instance, is inscribed with a list 
of the names of the gods and their titles. The tablet 
when complete must have measured some 11 X 16 
inches ; it was inscribed on each side with six columns 
of minute writing, every column containing over 
one hundred and fifty lines, and nearly every line 
giving the name of a separate deity .^ This is only one 
out of many tablets inscribed with lists of the names 
of the gods, and the existence of these documents 
serves to show that in the literature of the period we 
must expect to find the Babylonian religion in a fully 
advanced state of its development. 

Were we entirely dependent on such lists and 
catalogues it would be hard to gather a very consistent 
or very intelligible notion of what the Babylonian 
gods were like ; but fortunately this is not the case. 
Numbers of hymns and prayers have been recovered, 
which, by the titles and attributes therein ascribed to 
the gods, enable us to trace' their relationships to one 
another and their respective rank and power. Stories 
and legends of the gods have also been preserved, and 
from these it is possible to construct a fairly complete 
sketch of Babylonian mythology. Moreover, the names of 
the gods frequently figure in the historical inscriptions 

' The tablet is exhibited in the British Museum, Nineveh Gallery 
Case I., No. 4. 



OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION. / 

of Babylonian and Assyrian kings, not only of this 
late period, but also in those of rulers who occupied 
the throne during many earlier periods of the country's 
history. The victories gained over enemies were ascribed 
by each ruler to the help vouchsafed him by his own 
gods, and from ■ the names of those he mentions we 
learn what gods were held in special reverence during 
his reign. The kings of Babylon, too, were great 
builders and delighted to construct new temples and 
to restore the old ones which had fallen into decay. 
From the records of their building operations, and 
from the votive tablets deposited in the temples, we 
gain much information regarding the worship of the 
deities in whose honour they were made. Another 
source of information, especially for the early Sumerian 
period, are the lists of temple revenues and accounts ; 
while the very names of private persons preserved in 
business documents of various dates, containing as so 
many of them do the names of gods, serve to indicate 
roughly the changes which the principal gods ex- 
perienced in the popular estimation. It is of course 
to be regretted that we do not possess copies of the 
great religious and mythological works of the Baby- 
lonians during the earlier periods of their history, from 
which it would be possible to trace with absolute cer- 
tainty the course of their religious development. The 
numerous indirect sources of information referred to, 
however, enable us to control and classify the religious 



8 DESCRIPTION OF THE GODS. 

literature of the later Assyrian and Babylonian empires. 
By these means it is possible to gain a knowledge 
from native sources of Babylonian mythology and 
belief, and to supplement the scanty references to the 
religion of the country which are found in the Old 
Testament and in the works of the classical writers. 

The gods of the Babylonians, in the forms under 
which they were worshipped during the later historical 
periods, were conceived as beings with very definite 
and characteristic personalities. All the great gods, 
while wielding superhuman powers, were regarded 
as endowed witly'Tiuman forms, and, though they 
were notjisible, except in dreams and visions, to their 
worshippers, each was thought to possess a definite 
character and to have a body and features peculiar 
to himself. Not only were they like unto men in 
body, but in thought and feeling they were also very 
human. Like men they were born into the world, 
and like men they loved and fought, and even died. 
The Babylonians, in fact, had a very material concep- 
tion of the higher powers. They had no belief in a 
supreme and abstract deity of a different mould and 
nature to themselves; and though they ascribed all 
power and might to many of the greater gods they 
worshipped, they pictured these beings as swayed by 
human passions, and as acting in dependence on each 
other. About their gods they composed strange tales 
and legends, in which we read how some of them 



THEIR NATURE AND ORIGIN. 9 

performed acts of bravery and valour, how others dis- 
played cunning and treachery, and how others again 
exhibited fear and greed. It is true that, unlike men, 
their power was unlimited, they wielded magical 
weapons, and uttered spells and words of power ; but 
for all that they were fashioned in human mould; 
the separation between the Babylonian and his god 
was not in nature but in degree. 

In following the doings of the gods and in noting the 

attributes ascribed to them, we are naturally confronted 

by the problem as to what suggested to the Babylonian 

his precise differentiation in their characters. Was it 

merely fancy or arbitrary invention on his part ? We 

need not appeal to the comparative study of religion to 

answer the question in the negative, for the characters 

of the gods themselves betray their origin. They are 

personifications of natural forces; in other words, the 

gods and many of the stories told concerning them are 

the best explanation the Babylonian could give, after 

many centuries of observation, of the forces and changes 

he saw at work around him in the natural world. He 

saw the sun pass daily overhead, he observed the 

phases of the moon and the motions of the stars; he 

felt the wind and feared the tempest ; but he had no 

notion that these things were the result of natural 

laws. In company with other primitive peoples he 

explained them as the work of beings very like himself. 

He thought of nature as animated throughout by 



lO THE GREATER GODS. 

numberless beings, some hostile and some favourable 
to mankind, in accordance with the treatment he had 
experienced from them. Prom the greater powers and 
forces in nature he deduced the existence of the greater 
gods, and in many of the legends and myths he told 
concerning them we may see his naive explanation of 
the working of the universe. He did not speak in 
allegory or symbol, but believed his stories literally, 
and moulded his life in accordance with their teaching. 
Babylonian religion, therefore, in its general aspect 
may be regarded as a worship of nature, and the gods 
themselves may be classified as the personifications of 
various natural powers. But here at the outset we 
meet with a difficulty which has not yet been quite 
satisfactorily explained. During its early history the 
country was not a corporate whole under one adminis- 
tration, but the great cities, with the land immediately 
adjacent to them, formed a number of independent 
states. It was only after many centuries of separate 
existence, or of temporary coalition, that a permanent 
fusion was brought about between these separate 
kingdoms. Back in this dim past we can trace the 
existence of many of the great Babylonian gods of 
later times, and, as in later times, so still more at this 
early period, we find their worship was not equally 
prevalent throughout the country, but the cult of each 
deity was specialized and centred in separate cities. 
Enlil, the god of the earth, for instance, was worshipped 



THEIR LOCAL DISTRIBUTION. II 

in the earliest period at Nippur; Ea, the god of the 
deep, at Eridu ; ISTannar, the Moon-god, at Ur ; Utu, 
the Sun-god, at Larsa, and so on. Now taken in the 
aggregate, the worship of all these deities presents a 
consistent picture of the worship of nature in its 
different parts, and for the later periods such a picture 
no doubt accurately corresponds to the general char- 
acter of the national religion. But in the earliest 
period the great cities of the land were not parts of a 
single kingdom ; and it is not quite clear how this local 
distribution of the great natural gods among a number 
of originally independent cities can be explained. 

In seeking a solution of this problem it is necessary 
to realize the fact that the religious system of the 
Babylonians was the product of a long period of 
gradual development. The consistent scheme of nature 
worship practised by the later Babylonians was not 
received by them in a complete and finished form from 
their remote ancestors and predecessors in the land. 
At this remote period we may assume that its state 
was a very simple and a very primitive one. The 
horizon of these early peoples embraced little more 
than the walls of the cities in which they dwelt, and 
each city was content to worship and do battle for the 
honour of its local god; the fortune of the god was 
bound up with that of the city, and the downfall of the 
god followed close on the ruin of the city. With the 
gradual amalgamation of these separate cities into 



12 GROWTH OF THE CITY-GOD, 

larger states, an adjustment between the local gods 
was necessary. In any such coalition the god of the 
predominant city would naturally take precedence over 
those of the conquered or dependent cities with which 
he became associated. It is conceivable that in this 
way the relationships between some of the gods of the 
Babylonians arose. Even so, it is difficult to trace the 
process by which a local city-god became associated 
with one of the great powers of nature, and to decide 
whether his aspect as a god of a special department 
of the universe was inherent in his nature from 
the beginning, or was due to some subsequent 
development. Such questions present a number of 
attractive problems, many of which will doubtless be 
solved as more material relating to the earliest period 
of Babylonian history is published. Meanwhile, in 
whatever way we may explain it, the local worship in 
different cities of Babylonia of many of the greater 
natural gods is one of the most striking characteristics 
of the Babylonian system. 

In giving a sketch of the principal gods of Babylonia 
it will be expedient to confine ourselves in the main 
to the periods of Babylonian history subsequent to the 
rise of the city of Babylon to power, which was followed 
by the consolidation of the separate portions of the 
country into a single state. It would of course be 
possible to push our enquiry back into the earliest 
period when the Sumerian was in possession of the 



SUMERIAN AND SEMITIC DEITIES. 1 3 

country and the influence of the Semite was still 
unfelt. Although the study of the Sumerian deities 
is still in its infancy, it would be iDossible to give 
their names as found in the early inscriptions from 
Niffer, Mukayyar and Tell Loh, and, with the help of 
the later explanatory lists of the Assyrians, to trace 
in some measure their adoption and the modification 
of their names, attributes, etc., by the Babylonians.^ 
But to follow such a plan within the limits of the 
present volume would result in little more than a 
catalogue of names and ec[uations, many of which are 
still matters of conjecture. It will be better therefore 
to treat only of those great Semitic deities who figure 
so prominently in Babylonian mythology, and to refer 
to their Sumerian prototypes only in so far as they 
illustrate their later characters. 

Even during the Semitic period the Babylonian 
company of the gods underwent considerable changes. 
The assimilation of the Sumerian deities was not a 
sudden process, and the meeting of the two systems 
did not produce uniform results throughout the country. 
Moreover, in the later as in the earlier periods, every 
city had its own local god, to whose service the whole 
city was devoted, and around whose temple local tradi- 
tions and local myths gathered and flourished. The 
prominence which any one such local tradition attained 
in the Babylonian system was in proportion to the 

' See the names and attributes of the various deities collected by 
Jastrow in his Beligion of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 51 ff. 



14 ANU, BEL, AND EA. 

political position and influence of the city in which 
it arose. It is not a matter of surprise, therefore, that 
we come across varying traditions with regard to the 
positions and relationships of some of the gods. But 
with the gradual unification of the country many 
such variant traditions were harmonized and explained 
by the priesthood. It is thus possible, while making 
fuE allowance for the influence of local beliefs and of 
political changes, to give a brief sketch of the company 
of the Babylonian gods which will harmonize with 
their position and character in the great religious and 
mythological and legendary works of the nation. 

At the head of the company of the gods may be 
set the gi'eat triad of deities Anu, Bel and Ea, whose 
spheres of influence together embraced the entire uni- 
verse. Anu was the god of heaven, Bel the god of 
the earth and of mankind, and Ea the god of the abyss 
of water beneath the earth. At a very early period in 
Sumerian history we find these three deities mentioned 
in close connection with each other under their 
Sumerian names of Anna (Anu), Enlil (Bel), and 
Enki (Ea). Lugalzaggisi, who caused the inscription 
to be written in which their names occur, was one of 
the earliest Sumerian rulers of whose reign we have 
evidence, and we can thus trace back the existence 
of this great triad of gods to the very beginning of 
history. During the later periods the connection of 
these deities with each other, as the three great gods 









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SIN, SHAMASH, AND RAMMAN. IJ 

of the universe, remained unshaken. Each member 
of the triad had his own centre of worship. Thus 
Anu, though he had temples in other parts of the 
country, was paid peculiar reverence in TJruk, the 
Babylonian name of the city of Ereeh, which is men- 
tioned as one of the oldest cities of Babylonia in the 
table of nations in Genesis.' The god Bel, as has been 
already stated, was identified by the Semites with 
the Sumerian deity Enlil, whose worship in E-kur, 
his temple in the city of Mppur, was the oldest local 
cult of which we have evidence in the archaic inscrip- 
tions that have yet been recovered. The worship of 
the third member of the triad, Ea, originated in Eridu, 
the southernmost of the great cities of Babylonia, the 
site of which, now marked by the mound of Abu 
Shahren, stands fifty miles from the mouth of the 
Shatt el-Arab, but which in the earliest period of 
Babylonian history, before the formation of the present 
delta, must have stood on the shore of the Persian Gulf. 
, ' . ' 1 After these three deities with their world-wide 
dominion may be set a second triad, consisting of the 
two ^eat^ gods of light. Sin and Shamash, and the 
god of the atmosphere, EammIn. Sin, the Moon-god, 
identified also with Nannae, had two centres of wor- 
ship, the temple E-gish-shir-gal in XJr, and the temple 
E-khul-khul in Kharran, of which the former was the 
more ancient. In Ur the worship of the Moon-god 
' Genesis x. 10. 
BAB. EEL. ^ 



1 8 POSITION OF THE SUN-GOD. 

was celebrated from remote antiquity, and in influence 
and splendour his cult appears to have eclipsed that 
of Shamash, the Sun-god, whose worship was centred 
in the cities of Sippar and Larsa, in two great temples 
each of which bore the name of E-babbara, " the bright 
house." According to one tradition Shamash was 
regarded as the son of the Moon-god, and this subordi- 
nation of Sun-worship to the cult of the Moon is an 
interesting peculiarity of early Babylonian religion. At 
a later period, when the system of mythology was more 
fully developed, the Sun-god attained a position of 
greater prominence. He was then regarded as the judge 
of heaven and earth, and in the legends it was his 
decision to which appear was made in cases of wrong 
and injustice. The god Eamman, while particularly 
associated with thunder and lightning, was in general 
the god of the atmosphere and controlled the clouds, 
the mist and the rain. He was held in especial 
reverence by the Assyrian kings who loved to compare 
the advance of their forces in battle to the onslaught 
of the Storm-god. 

Thejmostprominent deity in the company of the 
Babylonian gods was Maeduk, who, as the local god 
of Babylon, naturally claimed the highest respect from 
the men of his own city. The extension of his influence 
was a result of the rise of Babylon to the position of 
the capital city in a united empire, and it is to this 
fact we may trace his identification with the old 



MARDUK AND NABU. 21 

Babylonian deity Bel, whose worship had flourished 
for so many centuries at Nippur, and the prominent 
part which he plays in Babylonian legend and 
mythology. From the days of Khammurabi onward 
Marduk never lost this position of supremacy among 
the other gods. Traces of his original subordinate 
character at the time when Babylon was still unknown 
may be seen in the fact that he was never regarded 
as the oldest of the gods, nor as endowed from the 
beginning with his later attributes ; he was conceived 
as having won his power and supremacy by his own 
valour and by the services he rendered both to gods and 
to mankind. In intimate association with Marduk 
may be mentioned Nabu, the god of Borsippa, a city 
which is marked to-day by the mound of Birs Nimrud,* 
and which, built a little to the south-west of Babylon 
on the opposite bank of the Euphrates, was in its later 
period little more than a suburb of the capital. To 
this fact we may trace the close connection of Nabii 
with Marduk, whose son and minister he was supposed 
to have been. E-zida, his temple in Borsippa, was 
closely associated with E-sagil, Marduk's great shrine 
in Babylon, and these two sanctuaries were the most 
famous in the country. 

Another prominent deity was IsTeegal, whose temple, 
E-shidlam, in the city of Kutu, or Cuthah, was one 

• A place situated about two hours' ride from the modern city of 
Hillnh. 



22 NERGAL, NINIB, AND NUSKU. 

of the oldest and largest sanctuaries in Northern 
Babylonia. In general character Nergal was the god 
of battle, and, no doubt from its destructive nature, 
of pestilence also; in still another capacity he was 
regarded as the god of the dead.^ The connection of 
ISTergal with the city of Cuthah was never severed 
throughout the long period of Babylonian history. 
Dungi, one of the earliest kings of the city of Ur, 
records the building or restoration of his shrine in that 
city, and more than two thousand years later, among 
the Babylonians whom Sargon sent to colonize Samaria, 
we read of certain men of Cuth, or Cuthah, who made 
an image of Kergal,^ to whom they trusted to preserve 
them from the lions that roamed through the devastated 
land. A god who was in later times closely associated 
with Xergal is Ninib. The reading of his name is 
conjectural, and his original character is also a matter 
of some uncertainty, but under the Assyrian kings his 
personality was more clearly indicated. By them he 
was regarded as a god of battle and the chase, and it 
was to Nergal and Ninib that they ascribed the gift of 
their mighty weapons. The Fire-god, NusKU, may 
also be mentioned among the more important deities, 
in view of the prominent position he occupies in the 
magical works of the Babylonians. 

The Babylonian goddesses, with one exception, are 
not very imposing figures, nor are their characters 
' See below, p. 37. ' 2 KxDgs xvii. 30. 



BABYLONIAN GODDESSES. 23 

very sharply defined or differentiated. Their position 
corresponded to some extent with the inferior position 
of women in Bahylonia. It has already been remarked 
that the Babylonian conceived his gods to be very 
human in their form and feelings, and it was but 
natural that his picture of their wives should have been 
drawn after the same model. Their principal functions 
in fact were to receive the favours of their lords and 
to become the mothers of a younger generation of gods. 
In several instances we may trace their position of 
dependence in the very names by which they were 
known. Thus Anatu, the wife of Anu, and Belit, the 
wife of Bel, in name as well as nature are merely 
female counterparts of the male deities with whom 
they are associated, Damkina, the wife of Ea, was 
a slightly more important personage to- judge from the 
numerous hymns addressed to her in the later period, 
a fact that may perhaps be explained as arising from 
her position as the mother of Marduk. Tsaepanitum, 
Marduk's wife, however, was of little account away 
from her partner, and the same may be said of 
Tashmetu the wife of Nabu, Ningal the wife of the 
Moon-god, Al the wife of the Sun-god, Shala the wife 
of Eamman, GuLA the wife of Ninib, and Laz the wife 
of Nergal. In fact, the goddesses of Babylonia exercised 
but little independent power, and, both in the ritual 
of worship and in the myths and stories told about the 
gods, they play a very unimportant and subordinate part. 



24 THE GODDESS ISHTAR. 

There is one very striking exception to this general 
rule, namely the goddess Ishtae. This deity in her 
own person appears to have absorbed the power and 
influence which were, at times, ascribed to other 
goddesses. She was identified with the Sumerian 
goddess Ninni, and in the Assyrian inscriptions she 
becomes the wife of the national god Ashur ; she was 
also referred to as " Belit," i.e., " the Lady," and in this 
character she assumed the titles and prerogatives of the 
wife of Bel. In course of time the name " Ishtar " was 
employed as a generic term for goddess. In Babylonia 
moreover, she was known by two different local names, 
which represented two quite distinct and separate 
characters. Under the title Anunitu she was wor- 
shipped as the goddess of battle at Agade and also at the 
city called Sippar of Anunitu ; and iinder this aspect she 
was regarded as the daughter of Sin the Moon-god and 
of Ningal his wife. At the great temple of E-ana at 
Trech, on the other hand, she was worshipped as the 
goddess of love and identified with Nana ; and in this 
character she was regarded as the daughter of Anu 
and Anatu. It was in her gentler character as the 
goddess of love that she became connected in legend 
with Dumuzi or Tammuz, her lover who died in 
early youth, and for the sake of whose recovery she 
descended to the realm of the dead. She was served 
at Erech by numerous priestesses attached to her 
worship, and the rites practised at her shrine, a later 



THE GODS IN HEAVEN. 2$ 

form of which is described by Herodotus,^ were 
performed in her honour as the goddess of love. By 
the Assyrians she was chiefly revered as the goddess 
of battle ; she had two famous shrines in Assyria, one 
at Nineveh and one at Arbela, and at both she was 
worshipped in her warlike character. 

Such are the characteristics of the principal gods of 
the Babylonians during the greater part of their history, 
and the sketch here given, though drawn from the re- 
ligious and historical literature, is not inconsistent with 
the attributes assigned to them in the astrological and 
astronomical inscriptions. The identification of the 
planets with some of the greater gods was probably 
neither a very early nor primitive development, but 
one which took place after the Babylonian company of 
the gods had been definitely formed. When the worship 
of a host of local gods had given place to an organized 
system of nature worship, and when the growth of 
legend and myth necessitated a belief in the constant 
intercourse of the gods with one another, it was not 
unnatural for the Babylonians to assume that the gods 
dwelt together in some special place, that is to say in 
heaven. From the earliest times the sun and moon 
were regarded as the symbols of the gods Shamash 
and Sin respectively, and the movements of the two 
great luminaries were believed to be directed by 
them. At a later period the movements of the j)lanets 

' Book I., chap. 199. 



26 SPIRITS AND DEMONS. 

were also thought to be directed by gods whose symbols 
they were, and it is probable that in this way the 
identification of Marduk with Jupiter, of Ishtar with 
Venus, of Ninib with Saturn, of Nergal with Mars 
and of Nabu with Mercury took place.' The members 
of the great triad of deities, who have been referred to 
as standing at the head of the company of the gods, were 
not omitted from this process ; Bel and Ea were trans- 
ferred to heaven and placed side by side with Anu, and 
the three henceforth divided the heavens between them. 
In the above sketch we have only enumerated the 
ildni rahuti, or " great gods " of the Babylonians, and it 
must not be forgotten that subordinate to them stood a 
host of lesser gods as well as countless demons and spirits 
possessing various powers and influences. Of these lesser 
spirits the two classes most frequently met with in the 
religious inscriptions are the Anunnaki and the Igigt, 
the " Spirits of the Earth " and the " Spirits of Heaven," 
respectively. Each class is generally mentioned in 
connection with the other, and they are described as 
carrying out the will of the great gods. In the magical 
literature the number of demons and ghosts and spirits 
which were hostile to mankind is very numerous, and to 
escape their evil influence it was necessary to invoke 
the assistance of magic and to employ powerful spells; by 
these means the help and protection of the great oods 
might be obtained to deliver a man from their baneful 
acts. 

' See Jensen, Die Kosmologie der Ealylonier, pp. 134 ff. 



( 27 ) 



CEAPTEE II. 

HEAVEN, EAETH, AND HELL. 

The conception formed by the Babylonians with regard 
to the shape and nature of the earth on which they lived, 
and the ideas they held respecting the structure of the 
heavens, and the expectation which they entertained of 
one day dwelling in some region beyond the grave, can 
only be gathered from various stray references and 
allusions scattered throughout the remains of their 
literature. We possess no treatise on these subjects 
from the pen of a Babylonian priest, and we have 
to trace for ourselves and piece together the beliefs 
of the Babylonians on all these questions from pas- 
sages in their historical and religious writings. That 
the ancient Babylonians concerned themselves with 
such problems there is ample evidence to show, and, 
although they have left behind them no detailed 
description of the universe, it is possible by a careful 
study of the texts to obtain a fairly complete idea 
of the world as they pictured it. To understand 
many of the legends and stories told concerning the 
Babylonian gods and heroes it is necessary to consider 



28 SHAPE OF THE EARTH. 

heaven, earth, and hell from their standpoint ; it will 
be well, therefore, to trace their views concerning these 
regions before passing to the myths and legends that are 
translated or referred to in the following chapters. 

With regard to the formation and shape of the earth 
we find a very interesting passage in a legend told con- 
cerning the old Babylonian hero Etana. The Eagle was 
a friend of Etana, and on one occasion this bird offered 
to carry him up to heaven. Etana accepted the Eagle's 
offer, and, clinging with his hands to the Eagle's pinions, 
he was carried up from the earth. As they rose to- 
gether into the higher regions, the Eagle told Etana to 
look at the earth which grew smaller and smaller as 
they ascended ; three times at different points of his 
flight, he told him to look down, and each time the Eagle 
spoke he compared the earth to some fresh object. 
After an interval of two hours the Eagle said, " Look, 
" my friend, at the appearance of the earth. Behold, 
" the sea, at its side is the House of Wisdom.^ Look how 
" the earth resembles a mountain, the sea has turned into 
" [a pool of] water." After carrying Etana up for two 
more hours the Eagle said, " Look, my friend, at the 
" appearance of the earth. The sea is a girdle round the 
" earth." After ascending for a further space of two hours 
the Eagle exclaimed, " The sea has changed into a, 
" gardener's channel " ; and at a still higher point of their 

' I.e., the dwelling-place of Ea, the Loid of Wisdom, who dwelt in 
the deep. 



POSITION OF THE SEA. 29 

flight the earth had shrunk to the size of a flower-bed. 
Prom these passages we see that the writer of the 
legend imagined the earth to be like a mountain around 
which flowed the sea. At the first stopping place Etana 
and the Eagle were so high that the sea looked like a 
pool of water, in the middle of which the earth rose. 
Later the sea had become so small that it looked like a 
girdle round the earth, and at length it appeared very 
little larger than a "gardener's water-channel" made 
for irrigation purposes. 

The belief that the earth was hemispherical in shape, 
resembling a mountain with gently sloping sides, was 
common among the Babylonians as we know from other 
passages. According to Diodorus Siculus, the Baby- 
lonians said that the earth was " like a boat and 
" hollow." ^ The boat used on the Tigris and Euphrates, 
and representations of which frequently occur on the 
momiments, had no keel and was circular in shape.' 
Such a boat turned upside down would give a very 
accui-ate picture of the Babylonian notion of the shape 
of the earth, the base of which the sea encircled as a 

' A Greek historian, born in Sicily, who lived in the first century 
before Christ, and wrote a iiistory of the world in forty books. 

= Bk. II., oh. 31, ed. Vogel, vol. i., p. 222. 

^ The boats used by the Babylonians and Assyrians are also 
described by Herodotus (Bk. I., chap. 194), who says that they were 
circular like a shield, their ribs being formed by willow branches and 
covered externally with skins, while no distinction was made between 
the head and the stern. At the present day similar vessels built of 
branches and skins, over which bitumen is smeared, are used at 
Baghdad. (See Layard, Nineveh and its Eemains, vol. ii. p. 3S1.) 



30 THE DOME OF HEAVEN. 

girdle encircles a man. To a dweller on the plains of 
Mesopotamia the earth might well seem to be a mountain 
the centre of which was formed by the high mountain 
ranges of Kurdistan ; while the Persian Gulf and the 
Indian Ocean which were on the south-east of Baby- 
lonia, and the Eed Sea and the Mediterranean lying to 
the south-west and west respectively, doubtless led to 
the belief that the ocean surrounded the world. 

At some distance above the earth was stretched out 
the heaven, a solid dome or covering in the form of 
a hollow hemisphere, very much like the earth in 
shape. Both earth and heaven rested upon a great 
body of water called Apsu, i.e., the Deep. It is not 
quite certain how the solid dome of heaven was sup- 
ported, that is to say, it is not clear whether it was 
supported by the earth, or was held up, independently 
of the earth, by the waters. According to one view 
the edge of the earth was turned up and formed around 
it a solid wall like a steep range of hills upon which 
the dome of heaven rested; and in the hollow be- 
tween the mountain of the earth and this outer wall 
of hills the sea collected in the form of a narrow 
stream. This conception coincides with some of the 
phrases in the legend of Etana, but against it may 
be urged the fact that the sea is frequently identified 
with Apstl or the primeval Deep upon which the earth 
rested. But if the edges of the earth supported, the 
dome of heaven, all communication between the sea 



THE HEAVENLY BODIES. 31 

and Apsu would be cut off. It is more probable there- 
fore that the earth did not support the heaven, and 
that the foundations of the heavens, like those of the 
earth, rested on Apsu. In the ^beginning, before the 
creation of the world, nothing existed except the water 
wherein dwelt monsters. According to a version of 
the creation story, however, the god Bel or Marduk 
formed the heavens and the earth out of the body of 
a great female monster that dwelt in the Deep which 
he had slain. Splitting her body into two halves, he 
fashioned from one half the dome of heaven, and from 
the other the earth.^ 

Above the dome of heaven was another mass of 

water, a heavenly ocean, which the solid dome of 

heaven supported and kept in its place, so that it 

might not break through and flood the earth. On the 

under side of the dome the stars had their courses 

and the Moon-god his path. In the dome, moreover, 

were two gates, one in the east and the other in the 

west, for the use of Shamash, the Sun-god, who every 

day journeyed from one to the other across the world. 

Coming from behind the dome of heaven, he passed 

through the eastern gate, and, stepping out upon the 

Mountain of the Sunrise at the edge of the world, 

he began his journey across the sky. In the evening 

he came to the Mountain of the Sunset, and, stepping 

iipon it, he passed through the western gate of heaven 

' See below, p. 55. 



32 THE PATH OF THE SUN-GOD. 

and disappeared from the sight of men. According 
to one tradition he made his daily journey across the 
sky in a chariot, which was drawn by two fiery horses. 
In representations on cylinder-seals, however, he is 
generally shown making his journey on foot. In the 
accompanying illustration Shamash is seen appearing 




Sliamasl], the Sun-fjnd, cominfr forth thront^h the eastern door of heaven. (Frum 
a cylinder-seal Id the Biitisli Museum, No. 89,110.) 

above the horizon of the world, as he enters the sky 
through the eastern gate of heaven. 

In the following hymn, addressed to the Eising Sun, 
a reference is made to Shamash entering the world 
through the eastern gate of heaven : — 

" Shamash, on the foundation of heaven thou hast 
flamed forth. 

" Thou hast unbarred the bright heavens, 

" Thou hast opened the portals of the sky. 

" Shamash, thou hast raised thy head over the land. 

" Shamash, thou hast covered the lands with the 
briLthtness of heaven." 



THE GATES OF HEAVEN. 35 

Another hymn, addressed to the Setting Sun, eon- 
tains a reference to the return of Shamash into the 
interior of heaven : — 

" Shamash, when thou enterest into the midst of 

heaven, 
" The gate-bolt of the bright heavens shall give thee 

greeting, 
" The doors of heaven shall bless thee. 
"The righteousness of thy beloved servant shall 

direct thee. 
"Thy sovereignty shall be glorious in E-babbara, 

the seat of thy power, 
" And Ai, thy beloved wife, shall come joyfully into 

thy presence, 
" And she shall give rest unto thy heart. 
" A feast for thy godhead shall be spread for thee. 
"0 valiant hero, Shamash, [mankind] shall glorify 

thee. 
" O lord of E-babbara, the course of thy path shall 

be straight. 
" Go forward on the road which is a sure foundation 

for thee. 
" Shamash, thou art the judge of the world, thou 

directest the decisions thereof." 

Each evening when Shamash entered the innermost 

part of heaven he was met by Ai, his wife, and he 

feasted and rested from his exertions in the abode of 

the gods. For, beyond the sky which was visible to 

BAB. EEL. D 



34 THE INNERMOST PART OF HEAVEN, 

men, and beyond the heavenly ocean which the dome 
of the sky supported, was a mysterious realm of tran- 
scendental splendour and beauty, the KiKiB Shame, 
or " Innermost part of Heaven," where the great gods 
at times dwelt apart from mankind. As a general 
rule the greater number of the gods dwelt upon earth, 
each in his own city and shrine, and each was believed 
to be intent upon the welfare of his worshippers ; but 
at any moment they could, if they so desired, go up 
to heaven. Thus, the goddess Ishtar was wont to 
dwell in the ancient city of Erech, but when she 
thought that an insult had been offered to her divinity 
by the hero Gilgamesh she at once ascended into 
heaven and demanded vengeance from her father and 
mother, that is to say, Anu the god of heaven, and 
Anatu his wife.* Again, the deluge sent by Bel upon 
the earth, besides destroying mankind, overwhelmed 
the shrines and temples of the gods who dwelt in the 
land, and they were driven forth and fled in fear to 
heaven, the realm of Anu.^ It was, however, only 
upon rare occasions that the gods left the earth, and 
it is in accordance with this rule that the council- 
chamber of the gods, where fate and destiny were 
decreed, was not in heaven but upon the eartL The 
name of this chamber was Upshukkinaku, and here 
the gods gathered together when they were summoned 
to a general council. This chamber was supposed to 
• See p. 161. * See p. 134. 



THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD. 35 

be situated in the east, in the Mountain of the Sunrise, 
not far from the edge of the world where it was bounded 
by the waters of the great Deep. 

It has already been stated that the earth was thought 
by the Babylonians to be in the form of a great hemi- 
sphere, and we must now add that they believed its 
hollow interior to be filled with the waters of the Deep 
upon which it also rested. The layer of earth was 
not, however, regarded as a thin crust. On the 
contrary, though hollow, the crust of solid ground was 
throught to be of great thickness. Within this crust, 
which formed the " mountain of the world," deep down 
below the surface of the ground, was a great cavern 
called Aeallu, and here was the abode of the dead. 
In this region was the great House of the Dead 
which was surrounded by seven walls ; these were 
so strongly built, and so carefully watched and guarded 
by beings of the underworld, that no one who had once 
entered therein could ever hope to return again to 
earth; indeed another name for Arallu, or the under- 
world, was mat Id tdri, " The land of no return." The 
House of the Dead was dark and gloomy, and in it 
the dead dragged out a weary and miserable existence. 
They never beheld the light of the sun, but sat in 
unchanging gloom. In appearance they resembled 
birds, for they were clothed in garments of feathers; 
their only food was dust and mud, and over everything 
thick dust was scattered. The Babylonians had no 



36 THE JOYLESS EXISTENCE OF THE DEAD. 

hope of a joyous life beyond the grave, and they did 
not conceive a paradise in which the deceased would 
live a life similar to that he lived upon earth. They 
made no distinction between the just and the unjust, 
and the good and the bad, but believed that all would 
share a common fate and would be reduced to the 
same level after death. The Babylonians shared this 
conception of the joyless condition of the dead with 
the Hebrews, by whom Sheol, or Hell, was thought to 
be a place where the dead led an existence deprived 
of all the joys of life. In Isaiah the dead, including 
" the chief ones of the earth " and " the kings of the 
" nations," are pictured as trooping forth to meet the 
king of Babylon when he joins their company; and 
they answer and say unto him : " Art thou also become 
" weak as we ? Art thou become like unto us ? Thy 
" pomp is brought down to hell and the noise of thy 
"viols: the worm is spread under thee and worms 
"cover thee."^ Ezekiel also emphasizes the same 
contrast between the condition of the living and the 
dead. Those that have caused terror in the land ojf 
the living, when they are slain lie still, and " bear their 
"shame with those that go down to the pit."^ The 
Psalmist prays to Jehovah for deliverance, "for in 
" death there is no remembrance of thee : in Sheol who 
" shall give thee thanks ? " ^ 

The goddess who presided over this joyless realm 
' Isaiah xiv. 10 f, ' Ezekiel xxxii. 17 ff. ^ Pgalm yi. 5. 



THE GODS OF THE DEAD. 37 

of the dead was named Allatu, or Ereshkigal, and 
she was associated in her rule with the god Neegal 
in his character as the god of the dead. The name 
of the wife of Nergal was the goddess Laz, but legend 
tells how IsTergal forced his way into the Lower World 
with the purpose of slaying Allatu, and how the 
goddess by her entreaties prevailed on him to spare 
her life and marry her. Henceforth Nergal and Allatu 
ruled together over the realm of the dead. The chief 
minister of Allatu was Namtak, the demon of pesti- 
lence and disease, who acted as her messenger and put 
her orders into execution. AUatu's decrees were 
written down by a goddess called Belit-tseei, "the 
"Lady of the Desert," who possibly took her name 
from the wild and barren desert that shut in Babylonia 
on the west ; and the chief porter who guarded its 
entrance was a god named Nedtj. The Anunnaki, or 
"Spirit of the Earth," also frequently acted under 
the orders of Nergal and Allatu. In addition to these 
chief deities Allatu exercised control over a number 
of demons, who, like Wamtar, spread plague and disease 
among mankind, and so brought fresh subjects to the 
realm of their mistress. 

The form and appearance of certain of the gods and 
demons of the underworld may be gathered from a 
number of engraved bronze plates which have come 
down to us ; these, it has been suggested, were in- 
tended to be placed as votive tablets in the graves 



38 A BABYLONIAN GRAVE-TABLET. 

of the dead. The accompanying illustration has been 
taken from the finest known specimen of this class of 
object which was purchased in Syria some twenty 
years ago ; it had evidently been brought there from 
some ancient Babylonian city. On the back of this 
tablet is cut in relief the figure of a mythical winged 
beast with a lion's head ; it stands on its hind legs 
and raises its head above the edge of the plate, the 
top of which it grasps with its fore- paws. On the front 
of the tablet, which is here reproduced, a funereal 
scene is represented. The beast looking over the top 
of the tablet is identified by some with the god Nergal, 
who was believed to preside over the funeral rites 
which are being performed for the deceased. 

It will be observed that the scene is divided by 
means of thick lines into four registers. The first 
register contains the emblems of a number of the 
gods. Here we have a group of seven small circles 
or stars, and a crescent, and a winged solar disk, and a 
circle containing an eight-rayed star, and a cylindrical, 
horned head-dress, and other objects. It has been 
suggested that these emblems had astrological signifi- 
cance,^ and if this be the case they may perhaps 
represent a particular grouping of the stars of the 
heavens and so indicate the date of the death of the 
man for whose benefit the tablet was made. The 
occurrence of such emblems, however, is frequent, both 
' See Clermont-Ganneau, Sev. Arcledl., Nouv. S€r., vol. 37, p. 343. 




Bronxe plate on which ared<=picted theffoils of the df^ad in atten^innce upon a derpn seit 
person and certain dpnions and d\\ellcr3in iLe ui.deri\urld. (_Fiom 1 ecue 
Archeologiqite, Xonv. Ser., Vo]. o7,) 



A FUNEREAL SCENE. 41 

on royal monuments {e.g., the stele of Ashur-natsir-pal, 
and the stele of Shalmaneser II., and the rock inscrip- 
tion at Bavian), and on inscribed cylinder seals ; and 
on these two classes of objects the emblems do 
not appear to have any astrological significance. It 
therefore seems more correct to explain their position 
at the head of the tablet by assuming that they are 
placed there as amulets to secure for the dead man 
the favour of the deities whose emblems they were. 

The next three registers into which the rest of the 
scene is divided have been supposed to represent 
different stages in the upper and lower world. It is 
preferable, however, to suppose that the three groups 
of figures in the three registers are parts of one scene, 
though they are placed, as is frequently the case in 
archaic sculptures, one above the other. The whole 
scene represents the deceased lying on his bier, 
attended by demons and beings from the underworld. 
In the second register we have seven mythical 
creatures with the bodies of men and the heads of 
beasts. They all are clothed in long tunics which 
teach to the feet, and they all face towards the right, 
and the right hand of each is raised. Each being has 
the head of a different beast. Beginning on the right 
it will be seen that the first one has the head of a 
serpent, the second that of a bird, the third that of a 
horse, the fourth that of a ram, the fifth that of a bear, 
the sixth that of a hound, and the seventh that of a 



42 GUARDIANS OF THE DEAD. 

lion. Certain other gods or demons occur in the third 
register. The first one on the right, who is in the form 
of a bearded man, has his right hand raised in the same 
manner as the seven beings in the second register, and 
next to him stand two lion-headed creatures, clasping 
hands. All these gods or demons appear to belong to 
the region of the dead, and they seem to be guarding 
the bier of the deceased, who is lying upon it with 
hands clasped and raised above him. On the left is the 
deceased in his grave-clothes; at his head and feet 
stand two attendants, with their right hands raised, and 
they appear to be performing some mystic ceremony 
over the corpse. The dress of these attendants is 
remarkable, for they wear garments made in the form 
of a fish. Behind the attendant at the head of the bier 
is a stand for burning incense. 

The most interesting figures on the plate are those 
in the fourth register, for they represent two of the 
chief deities of the underworld. The female figure in 
the centre is the goddess Allatu, the queen of the dead. 
She has the head of a lioness and the body of a woman ; 
in each hand she grasps a serpent, and a lion hangs 
from each breast. She kneels upon a horse in a boat 
and is sailing over the "Waters of Death," which 
adjoin Apsu, the primeval ocean that rolls beneath 
the earth. The hideous, winged demon behind her is 
Namtar, the demon of the plague, who waits upon her 
and is ever ready to do her bidding. It is not certain 



OTHER GRAVE-TABLETS. 43 

what the objects in front of AUatu are, but it is 
probable that they are intended to represent the 
offerings which were placed in the grave with the 
deceased. The purpose of the tablet seems to have 
been to secure the safe passage of the dead man into 
Arallu, or the underworld. 

A somewhat similar bronze tablet, but less well 
preserved, is in the Imperial Ottoman Museum at 
Constantinople, and is said to have been found at 
Surghul in Southern Babylonia.^ On the back of this 
tablet, beneath the feet of the monster who looks over 
the top, a space of four lines has been left blank to 
receive an inscription which would either record 
the name and titles of the deceased, or contain an 
incantation which was to be recited for his benefit. 
On the back of a similar, though somewhat smaller 
tablet that was evidently intended to be used for the 
same purpose (although it only represented the goddess 
Allatu, while the bier and the Plague-demon Namtar and 
the other gods or demons found on the larger tablets 
were wanting), a longer inscription was found. This 
tablet was published by Lajard, but the text is so badly 
copied that it cannot be read with certainty.^ A still 
smaller tablet of the same character is preserved in 
the British Museum.® 

' See the plate published by Soheil, Becueil de Travaux, Vol. XX., 
p. 55. 
^ See Lajard, Beeherohes sur le oulte . . . de Ve'nus, pi. XVII., No. 1. 
' No. 86,262. 



44 THE IMPORTANCE OF DUE BURIAL. 

Perhaps in no matter do the Babylonians afford a 
more striking contrast to the Egyptians than in the 
treatment of the dead. In the moist, alluvial soil of 
Mesopotamia the dead body fell quickly into decay, 
and in the absence of ranges of hills such as those 
which run on each side of the Nile Valley, the making 
of rock-hewn tombs in which the bodies of the dead 
might be preserved was impossible. It is to this fact, 
probably, that we may trace the ideas of the gloomy 
existence which the Babylonians believed they would 
lead when they passed beyond the grave. It must not 
be imagined, however, that the Babylonians attached no 
importance to the rites of burial. On the contrary, the 
greatest misfortune that could befall a man was to be 
deprived of burial, for, in this case, it was thought that 
his shade could not reach Arallii, and that it would 
have to wander disconsolately about the earth, where, 
driven by the pangs of hunger, it would be obliged to 
eat and drink any offal or leavings which it might 
find in the street. It was in order to ensure such a 
fate to his foes that Ashur-bani-pal, on his conquest of 
Susa, caused the graves of the kings who had been 
dead and buried many years to be disturbed and their 
bones to be dragged to Assyria ; and the same object 
prompted the mutilation of corpses on the battlefield 
and the casting forth of the dead bodies to be devoured 
by birds and beasts of prey. 

To leave a body unburied, however, was not un- 



WANDERING SHADES. 45 

attended with danger to the living, for the shade of 
the dead man, during its wanderings over the eartli, 
might bewitch any person it met and cause him 
grievous sickness. The wandering shade of a man was 
called " ekimmu," i.e., spectre, and the sorcerer and the 
witch claimed to possess the power of casting a spell 
whereby an "ekimmu" might be made to harass a 
man. On the other hand an " ekimmu " would some- 
times settle on a man of its own accord, in the hope 
that its victim would give it burial in order to free 
himself from its clutches. We have in the British 
Museum an interesting incantation which was intended 
to be recited by a man on whom an " ekimmu " had 
fastened itself,^ and from this we learn that a man, who 
had fallen sick in consequence, might cry aloud in his 
pain, saying : — 

" Ea, Shamash, Marduk, deliver me, 

" And through your mercy let me have relief. 

"0 Shamash, a horrible spectre for many days 

" Hath fastened itself on my back, and will not loose 
its hold upon me. 

" The whole day long he persecuteth me, and in the 
night season he striketh terror into me. 

" He sendeth forth pollution, he maketh the hair of 
my head to stand up, 

"He taketh the power from my body, he maketh 
mine eyes to start out, 

' See King, Babylonian Magic and Sorcery, p. 119 f. 



46 LAYING A TROUBLED SPIRIT. 

" He plagueth my back, he poisoneth my flesh, 

" He plagueth my whole body." 

The sick man in his despair prays to Shamash to 
be delivered from the ekimmu, whoever he may be, 
saying :— 

" Whether it be the spectre of one of- my own family 
and kindred, 

" Or the spectre of one who was murdereid, 

" Or whether it be the spectre of any other man that 
haunteth me." 

In order to ensure the departure of the spectre to 
the underworld he next makes the necessary offerings 
which will cause the spirit of the unburied man to 
depart, and says : — 

" A garment to clothe him, and shoes for his feet, 

" And a girdle for his loins, and a skin of water for 
him to drink, 

" And ... * as food for his journey have I given him. 

" Let him depart into the West, 

"To Nedu, the chief Porter of the Underworld, I 
consign him. 

"Let Nedu, the chief Porter of the Underworld, 
guard him securely, 

" And may bolt and bar stand firm (over him)." 

It is clear, therefore, that in their own interest, as 
well as in that of the deceased, a man's friends and 
relations took good care that he was buried with all 

' I cannot transUte the signs in the text here. 



MOURNING FOR THE DEAD. 47 

due respect, and ensured his safe journey to the lower 
world by placing in the grave offerings of meat and 
drink to sustain him by the way ; such offerings were 
perhaps also intended to alleviate his unhappy lot 
after his arrival in the gloomy abode of the underworld. 
Not many details have come down to us with regard 
to the ceremonies that were performed at the grave, 
but we know that after a man's death his house was 
filled with mourners, both male and female, whom his 
family hired in order that they might give public 
expression to the grief occasioned by his death. Among 
the Assyrian letter-tablets in the British Museum there 
is one * which refers to the death of the reigning king 
and to the regulations for mourning that were to be 
observed at the court. " The king," the letter says, 
"is dead, and the inhabitants of the city of Ashur 
"weep." The writer of the letter then goes on to 
describe the departure of the governor of the city with 
his wife from the palace, the offering up of a sacrifice, 
and the wearing of mourning raiment by the whole 
court ; and it finally states that arrangements had been 
made with a director of music to come with his female 
musicians and sing dirges in the presence of the court. 
The mourning on the death of a private citizen would 
of course be carried out on a more modest scale. 

After the mourning for the dead man had been 
performed, his body, duly prepared for burial, was 
' British Museum, No. 81-2-4, 65. 



48 BURIAL RITES. 

carried forth to the grave. That the burial of the dead 
with accompanying rites and offerings was practised 
in Babylomia from a remote period is proved by a 
representation on a stele which was set up to record 
the victories of Eannadu, an ancient king of the city 
of Shirpurla, who reigned in all probability before 
B.C. 4000. On a portion of this stele is a representation 
of the burial of those of his warriors who had fallen 
in battle. The dead are laid in rows, with head to 
feet alternately, and above them a mound of earth has 
been raised ; their comrades are represented bearing 
baskets containing more earth for the mound, or per- 
haps funeral offerings for the dead.^ On the monuments 
of later Babylonian and Assyrian kings we do not find 
any representation of burial ceremonies, but in a broken 
inscription of one of the later Assyrian kings, whose 
name has unfortunately not been preserved, we have 
a brief but very interesting account of the ceremonies 
which he performed at his father's burial.^ He says — 

" Within the grave, 

" The secret place, 

" In kingly oil, 

" I gently laid him. 

" The grave-stone 

" Marketh his resting-place. 

" With mighty bronze 

' See De Sarzeo, D^eouvertes en Clialdge, pi. 3. 
= British Museum, K. 7856 ; see Meissner, Vienna Oriental Journal 
Vol. XII., pp. 60 ff. 



THE INTERMENT OF A KING. 49 

" I sealed its entrance, 

" I protected it with an incantation. 

" Vessels of gold and silver, 

" Such as (my father) loved, 

" All the furniture that befitteth the grave, 

" The due right of his sovereignty, 

" I displayed before the Sun-god, 

" And beside the father who begat mc, 

" I set them in the grave. 

" Gifts unto the princes, 

« Unto the Spirits of the Earth,i 

" And unto the gods who inhabit the grave, 

" I then presented." 
'From this we learn that the king placed vessels of 
gold and silver in the grave as dedicatory offerings, 
and after sealing up the entrance to the grave he 
pronounced a powerful spell to prevent the violation 
of the tomb by robbers ; he also presented offerings to 
propitiate the demons and dwellers in the underworld. 

Another interesting point about this record is the 
fact that the dead body is said to have been set " in 
"kingly oil," for the oil was clearly used with the idea 
of preserving the body from decay. §alt also seems 
to have been used for the purpose of preserving the 
dead, for Ashur-baai-pal tells how, when Nabu-bel- 
shumati had caused himself to be slain by his 
attendant to prevent himself falling alive into the 

' The Aniinnaki. 
BAB. EEL. E 



50 PRESERVATION OF THE DEAD BODY. 

hands of Ashur-bani-pal, Ummanaldas had the body 
placed in salt and conveyed to Assyria into the 
presence of the king.^ Besides salt and oil, honey 
seems also to have been used by the Babylonians for 
preserving the dead. Herodotus says that the Baby- 
lonians buried in honey,^ and that honey possesses 
great powers of preserving the dead is proved by the 
fact that the Egyptians also used it for this purpose.* 
Moreover, it is recorded that Alexander the Great 
•when on his death-bed commanded that he should be 
buried in honey, and it seems that his orders were 
obeyed.* Tradition also says that one Marcellus having 
prepared the body of Saint Peter for burial by means 
of large quantities of myrrh, spices, etc., laid it in a 
" long chest " iilled with honey.^ 

There is ample evidence, therefore, to show that the 
Babylonians cared for their dead and took pains about 
their burial, and it is the more surprising on that 
account, that during the numerous excavations which 
have been carried out in Mesopotamia, comparatively 
few graves have been discovered. Of the graves that 
have been found, some are built of bricks and are in 
the form of small vaulted chambers, while others have 
a flat or domed roof supported by a brick substructure ; 

' Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. V., pi. -vll., 11. 38 if. 
' Bk. I., chap. 198. ' See Budge, Tlie Mummy, p. 183. 

< See Budge, The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great, Vol II 
P- Sid f. 
= See Brit. Mub. MS. Oriental 678, fol. 17o, col. 1. 



BABYLONIAN GRAVES. 5 1 

in addition to these graves a few clay sarcophagi and 
burial jars have been found. With the skeletons in 
the graves are usually found a small number of vases 
and perhaps some simple objects of the toilet; but 
from the fact that no inscriptions have been found 
either over these graves or upon any of the objects 
found therein, it is extremely difficult to assign to 
them even an approximate date; in fact, some have 
unhesitatingly assigned them to a period •which is much 
later than that of the ancient Babylonian and Assyrian 
empires. To account for this dearth of graves the 
suggestion has been made that the Babylonians burnt 
their dead, but not a single passage has been found 
in the cuneiform inscriptions in support of thi§ view. 
It is true that in the winter of 1886 and in the spring 
of the following year the Eoyal Prussian Museum sent 
out an expedition to Babylonia, which, after excavating 
the mounds of Surghtil and El-Hibbah, thought they 
had obtained conclusive evidence that the Babylonians 
burnt their dead.^ But it has since been pointed out 
that the tombs they excavated belong to a period 
subsequent to the fall of the Babylonian Empire, 
while the half-burned appearance of the charred 
human remains they discovered seemed to suggest 
that the bodies were not cremated but were accidentally 
destroyed by fire. However the comparatively small 
number of graves that have been found may be 
' See Koldewey, Zeitichrift fur Aisyriologie, Bd. II., pp. 403 ff. 



52 CARE FOR THE DEAD. 

accounted for, we may confidently believe that the 
Babylonians and Assyrians were in the habit of 
burying, and not burning, their dead throughout the 
whole course of their history. We are right also in 
saying that they imagined that burial, and offerings 
made at the tomb, would ameliorate the lot of the 
departed, and that they were usually scrupulous in 
performing all rites which could possibly benefit the 
dead. 



( S3 ) 



CHAPTEK III. 

THE LEGENDS OF CREATION. 

The nations of the ancient world who have left behind 
any remains or traces of their literature possessed 
theories as to the manner in which the world came 
into being. Such theories, or cosmogonies as they are 
termed, are generally told in the form of myths or 
stories, and, although we only know them in their later 
and fully developed forms, their origin may be assumed 
to go back to a considerable antiquity. If we may 
judge from the studies and observations that have been 
made of undeveloped races at the present-day, it may 
be concluded that primitive man was essentially a 
maker of myths. Believing as he did that every object 
and force in nature possessed a personality and will 
like his own, he would explain the changes he saw 
taking place in the world around him by means of 
legends and stories. In these he would ascribe to the 
mysterious beings, which seemed to him to animate 
the natural world, motives similar to those which 
would control his own actions. At a more mature 



54 LEGENDS OF CREATION. 

stage in his development he began to perceive a con- 
nection or dependence between the various powers of 
nature, such as the alternation of day and night, the 
movements of the stars, and the regular recurrence 
of the seasons ; these would tend to suggest that some 
plan or system had been followed in the creation of 
the world, and in seeking for the reason of things 
along the familiar lines of myth, he would in process 
of time develop a cosmogony or story of creation. We 
have evidence that at least two such stories were 
current in Babylonia and Assyria in the later periods 
of their history. 

The story of the creation of the world as told in 
Babylon about the year B.C. 300 we know in brief 
outline from the extracts that have come down to us 
from the history of Berosus, a Chaldean priest, who 
ministered in the temple of Bel at Babylon at the end 
of the fourth and the beginning of the third century 
before Christ. Berosus wrote a history of Babylonia, 
beginning with the creation of the world and extending 
down to his own time, and although his work, which 
he translated into Greek, has been lost, extracts from 
it have been preserved in the books of .later writers. 
His account of the creation, for instance, was repro- 
duced by Alexander Polyhistor, from whom Eusebius 
quotes in the first book of his Chronicon?- From this 
we learn that the Babylonians pictured to themselves 
' Oiron. I., ed. Schoene, col. 14 ff. 



THE VERSION OF BEROSUS. 55 

a time when the world had no existence, a time 
before things came into being, when darkness and 
water alone existed. The water, however, did not 
remain uninhabited for long, for monsters arose in it, 
i.e., men with wings, and creatures with four wings 
and two human heads, and beings with two heads, one 
male and one female. Some creatures had the bodies 
of men, but had the feet and horns of goats ; some had 
the legs of horses, and others, like hippocentaurs, had 
the bodies and legs of horses but the upper parts of 
a man. Others, again, were in the form of bulls with 
the heads of men, or dogs with four bodies ending in 
the tail of a fish, or men and horses with the heads of 
dogs, and some had the head and body of a horse but 
the tail of a fish. In the water also creeping things, 
and serpents, and many other monsters of strange and 
varied shapes existed. Over these monsters a woman 
reigned called Omoroka (or Omorka), in Chaldee 
Thamte,^ or in Greek Thalassa, " the Sea." A change 
in this world of chaos was brought about by the death 
of the woman Omorka, who was slain by a god named 
Bel. Bel cleft her in twain, and from one half he made 
the earth, and from the other he made the heavens ; 
and he slew also the monsters of the deep over whom she 
ruled. The account then goes on to say that after Bel 
had created the earth, he perceived that it was barren 

' The text reads Tlialatth, which is probably a corruption of 
Thamte, i.e., tdmtu the Babylonian for " sea, ocean." See Eobertson 
Smith, Zeitschrift fiir Assyriologie, Bd. VI., p. 339. 



56 DISCOVERY OF THE CREATION TABLETS. 

and had no inhabitants; he therefore decided to use 
his own blood for creation. He bade one of the gods 
to cut off his head and mix the earth with the blood 
which flowed from him, and from the mixture he 
■directed him to fashion men and animals. Although 
deprived of his head Bel did not die, for he is said to 
have also created the stars, the sun and moon, and the 
five planets, after his head was cut off. Such is the 
account of the Babylonian cosmogony as narrated by 
Berosus, which Eusebius has preserved. But as the 
latter writer quoted the story at second hand, it is 
more than probable that he accidentally misrepresented 
or misunderstood certain portions of it. 

Fortunately we have not to depend on Eusebius 
alone for our knowledge of the Babylonian stories of 
creation, for we now possess far fuller accounts on 
Assyrian and Babylonian tablets which have been 
published within the last twenty-five years. The credit 
of having made known to the world the Babylonian 
Creation tablets belongs to the late Mr. George Smith 
who, in 1875, published a story very like that told by 
Berosus, inscribed upon some of the tablets and 
fragments of tablets that had been brought to England 
from the site of Ashur-bani-pal's library at Nineveh 
several years before. The publication of the text and 
translations of the Creation tablets by Mr. Smity threw 

> See Trane. Soe. Bibl. Arch., Vol. IV. (1876) p. 363 f. (six plates), 
and The Oialdean Account of Genesis, London, 1876. 



THEIR NUMBER AND CONTENTS. 57 

great light upon the Babylonian cosmogony, and evoked 
considerable interest in the subject. 

From the date of their first publication the tablets 
have been closely studied, and from time to time fresh 
fragments of the legend have been identified in the 
British Museum. During this period, moreover, the 
knowledge of the Assyrian language has greatly 
increased, so that a more accurate rendering of the 
texts can now be given than was possible at the time 
of their discovery.^ From these inscriptions we gather 
that at about the middle of the seventh century before 
■Christ the Babylonian story of the creation was pre- 
served at Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, in the form 
of a great poem, divided into a number of parts or 
sections, each of which was inscribed upon a separate 
tablet. The tablets were distinguished by numbers, 
and the whole series was named Enuma elish, " When 
in the height," from the opening words of the First 
Tablet. The poem is incomplete in passages, and the 
end is very imperfect. We know that the series when 
complete contained at least six tablets, but it is 
impossible to say definitely how many tablets it 
originally contained. In spite of the fragmentary 
condition of many parts of the poem, however, the 
thread of the narrative can generally be followed. 

• For the principal works dealing with the Creation tablets which 
have been published within recent years, see Jensen, Die Kosmologie 
■der Sabylonier, pp. 203 ff., Gunkel and Zimmern, SclSpfung und 
Chaos, pp. 401 ff., and Delitzsoh, Da$ babylonitche WeltschSpfungtejgot, 
pp. 7 ff. 



58 SUMMARY OF THE BABYLONIAN LEGEND. 

This version of the Babylonian cosmogony is prac- 
tically identical with that given by Berosus about 
three hundred and fifty years later. According to the 
version on the Assyrian tablets, chaos in the beginning, 
before the world was created, consisted of a watery mass. 
Two primeval beings personified chaos, namely Apsu, 
the "Deep," and Tiamat, the universal mother, who 
corresponds to the woman named Omorka, or Thamte, 
by Berosus. Beside Apsu and Tiamat no other being 
existed, and they mingled their waters in confusion. In 
the course of time the gods were created ; the first were 
Lakhmu and Lakhaniu, Anshar and Kishar came next, 
after many ages, and after a further period the other 
great gods were born. But Tiamat, the monster of the 
Deep, who had taken the form of a huge serpent, and 
Apsu, her consort, revolted against the gods, and created 
a brood of monsters to destroy them, Anshar, the 
leader of the gods, having entrusted in vain the god 
Anu, and after him the god Ea, with the task of resist- 
ing Tiamat, prevailed on Marduk, the son of Ea, to be 
the champion of the gods and to do battle with the 
monster. The gods were summoned by Anshar to a 
council that they might confer supreme power upon 
Marduk and arm him for the fight. After completing; 
his preparations Marduk went out to meet Tiamat and 
her host and succeeded in slaying her and in taking^ 
her helpers captive. He then split Tiamat's body in 
half and from one half he formed the heaven, fixing 



ITS RESEMBLANCE TO GENESIS. 59 

it as a firmament to divide the upper from the lower 
waters, and placing bars and sentinels that the waters 
should not break through. Marduk then created the 
heavenly bodies that they might regulate the seasons, 
and he appointed the moon to rule the night. The 
poem at this point becomes mutilated, but there is 
evidence to show that Marduk then created the earth, 
and the green herb, and cattle, and the beasts of the field, 
and creeping things, and man, in the order here given. 

From the above summary of the Babylonian story 
of creation it will be seen that it presents some very 
remarkable points of resemblance to the narrative 
of the creation as preserved in the first chapter of 
Genesis ; and it is chiefly to this fact that the wide- 
spread interest in the legend is due. The bare outline 
given by Berosus does not suggest a very close parallel 
to the Biblical account, but from the more detailed 
narrative as given on the tablets we see that many 
features of the story of creation narrated in Genesis are 
also characteristic of the Babylonian cosmogony. Thus 
according to each account the existence of a watery 
chaos preceded the creation of the present world. The 
Hebrew word tehoin translated " the deep " in Genesis,^ 
corresponds exactly with the Babylonian " Tiamat," the 
monster of the deep who personified chaos and con- 
fusion. The creation of light recorded in Genesis is 
the equivalent of the statement on the Creation tablets 

> Gen. i. 2. 



6o THE BIBLICAL AND BABYLONIAN ACCOUNTS, 

that Tiamat was vanquished by Marduk, for he overcame 
the monster in liis character as a solar god. Then there 
follows in each narrative the description of the creation 
of a firmament, or solid dome of heaven, to keep 
the upper waters in place ; in each account the narra- 
tive of the creation of the heavenly bodies follows 
that of the firmament, and in each also they are 
appointed to regulate the seasons. It has been suggested 
that the seven days of creation in Genesis correspond 
to seven definite acts of creation in the Babylonian 
account ; but a careful study of the Babylonian poem 
has shown that such an arrangement was not contem- 
plated by the Babylonian scribes, nor is there any 
evidence to show that the creation was deliberately 
classified in a series of seven acts. A slight perusal of 
the legend is, however, sufficient to prove that the two 
accounts present in many ways a very striking resem- 
blance to each other ; but in some respects the contrast 
they present is no less striking. When we examine the 
aims and ideas which underlie and permeate the two 
narratives, all resemblance between them ceases. The 
monotheism of Genesis finds no echo in the Babylonian 
poem, and in the latter no single and pre-existing deity 
created the universe from chaos by his word, but the 
gods themselves emerged from chaos, and it was only 
after one of their number had fought with and slain 
the mother of them all that the creation of the world 
took place. 



THE CREATION OF THE GODS. 6 1 

Before we proceed to consider the problem of the 
relationship of these two stories of the creation it will be 
well to give a translation of those portions of the Baby- 
lonian legends that have been preserved, and to trace 
their age and history so far as they can be ascertained. 
The beginning of the First Tablet contains a descrip- 
tion of chaos and of the birth of the oldest gods ; it 
reads : — 

" When in the height heaven was not named, 

" And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name ; ^ 

" And Apsu the primeval, who begat them, 

" And chaos, Tiamat, the mother of them both — 

" Their waters were mingled together, and 

" No field was formed, no marsh was to be seen ; 

"When of the gods none had been called into 

being, 
"And none bore a name, and no destinies [were 

ordained] ; 
" Then were created the gods, [all. of them], 
" Lakhmu and Lakhamu were called into being. . . 

"Ages increased 

" Anshar and Kishar were created 

" Long were the days 

" Ann, the father 

" Anshar and Ann 

The last line but one evidently refers to the creation 

' According to Semitic ideas thename of a thing was regarded as its 
essence ; hence to bear a name was equivalent to being in existence. 



€2 REPETITIONS IN THE TEXT. 

of the god Anu ; and from a passage in Damascius, 
where this Babylonian theogony is reproduced,^ we may 
infer that the gods Bel and Ea were created along with 
him. It is probable that the creation of the other great 
gods was then described. Chaos was, in fact, giving 
place to order, but the gods were not for long allowed 
to remain in peace, for Tiamat, their mother, conceived 
a hatred for them, and with Apsti, their father, plotted 
their destruction. The First Tablet ends with a descrip- 
tion of the brood of monsters which Tiamat spawned to 
aid her in her fight with the gods. 

Of the Second Tablet very little has been preserved, 
but, as in the case of the First Tablet, sufficient frag- 
ments of the text remain to indicate the general course 
of the story. The piecing together of the narrative, 
however, would be well nigh impossible were it not 
for a strange characteristic of Babylonian poetry, that 
is to say, the practice of frequent repetition. But for 
this practice the description of Tiamat's brood of 
monsters, and of her selection of Kingu as their captain 
would be lost, for hardly any of it remains on the frag- 
ments of the First Tablet. The description, however, 
is repeated in the form of a message to the god Anshar 
at the beginning of the Second Tablet; it is also 
repeated on the Third Tablet, once by Anshar to his 
minister Gaga, and again by Gaga when delivering 
Anshar's message to Lakhmu and Lakhamu. Had we 

' Quaesiiones de primu pnncipiiB, chap. 125 (ed. Kopp, p. 384). 



anshar's instructions to gaga. 63 

the complete text of the First and Second Tablets of 
the poem such repetition might be wearisome, but in 
their present imperfect condition its advantages for the 
restoration of the text are obvious. 

On hearing the news of Tiamat's preparations for 
battle the god Anshar was troubled, and he sent his 
son Anu to speak with her and to try to appease her 
anger. Anu went to her, but when he saw her he 
turned back in fear. The god Ea was next sent by 
Anshar, but he met with no better success. Anshar 
then invited the god Marduk to do battle with Tiamat, 
and he consented on condition that the gods would 
meet together and solemnly declare him their champion. 
The Second Tablet ends with Marduk's speech to 
Anshar, and the Third Tablet opens with Anshar's 
instructions to his minister Gaga to summon a council 
of the gods. Gaga was ordered to carry tidings of 
Tiamat's revolt to Lakhmu and Lakhamu, and to 
direct them to summon the gods who were to appoint 
Marduk as their champion. The Third Tablet begins : — 

' Anshar opened his mouth, and 

' [To Gaga] his minister spake the word : 
[Go Gaga, thou minister] that rejoicest my spirit, 

' [To Lakhmu and La]khamu I will send thee. 



let the gods, all of them, 

[Make ready for a feast], at a banquet let them 
sit, 



64 THE REVOLT OF TIAMAt, 

" [Let them eat bread], let them mix wine, 
"[That for Marduk], their [avenger], they may- 
decree the fate. 
" [Go Ga]ga, stand before them, 
" [And all that I] tell thee, repeat unto them, (and 



" ' Anshar your son has sent me, 

"The purpose of his heart he has made known to 
me. 

"He says that Tiamat our mother has conceived a 
hatred for us, 

" With all her force she rages, full of wrath. 

" All the gods have turned to her ; 

" With those, whom you created, they go at her side. 

" They are banded together, and at the side of Tiamat 
they advance ; 

" They are furious, they devise mischief without rest- 
ing night and day. 

" They prepare for battle, fuming and raging ; 

"They have joined their forces and are making war. 

" Ummu-Khubur,^ who formed all things, 

" Has made in addition weapons invincible, she has 
spawned monster-serpents, 

" Sharp of tooth, and cruel of fang ; 

"With poison instead of blood she has filled their 
bodies. 

" Fierce monster-vipers she has clothed with terror, 
• Another name of Tiamat. 



HER BROOD OF MONSTERS. 65 

"With splendour she has decked them, and she has 

caused them to [mount ?] on high. 
" Whoever beholds them is overcome by dread. 
" Their bodies rear up and none can withstand their 

attack. 
" She has set up the viper, and the dragon, and the 

(monster) Lakhamu, 
" And the hurricane, and the raging hound, and the 

scorpion-man, 
" And mighty tempests, and the fish-man, and the ram ; 
" They bear merciless weapons, without fear of the 

fight. 
" Her commands are mighty, none can resist them ; 
"After this fashion, huge of stature, she has made 

eleven (monsters). 
"Among the gods who are her sons, inasmuch as 

he gave her support, 
" She has exalted Kingu ; in their midst she has 

raised him to power. 
" To march before the forces, to lead the host, 
" To give the battle-signal, to advance to the attack, 
" To direct the battle, to control the fight, 
"To him has she entrusted; in costly raiment she 

has made him sit, (saying) : 
" ' I have uttered thy spell, in the assembly of the 

gods I have raised thee to power, 
"The dominion over all the gods have I entrusted 

to thee. 

BAB. EEL. F 



66 KINGU AND THE REBEL HOST. 

" Be thou exalted, thou my chosen spouse, 

"Let them magnify thy name over all [the world].' 

" Then did she give him the Tablets of Destiny,' on 

his breast she laid them, (saying) : 
" ' Thy command shall not be without avail, and the 

word of thy mouth shall be established.' 
"Now Kingu, (thus) exalted, having received the 

power of Ann, 
"Decreed the fate for the gods, her sons : 
" ' Let the opening of your mouth quench the Fire- 
god; 
"Whoso prides himself on valour, let him display 

(his) might ! ' " 
So far Anshar has described the revolt of Tiamat 
and the creation of the monsters who were to help 
her in the fight, and her selection of Kingu as the 
captain of her host ; all these things are described in 
the First Tablet in exactly the same language. He 
next mentions the measures he has taken on hearing 
of Tiamat's treachery in the following words : — 
" I sent Anu, but he was unable to go against her ; 
" Nudimmud ^ was afraid and turned back. 
" Marduk has set out, the director of the gods, your 
son ; 

' The possession of the "Tablets of Destiny" carried with it 
supremacy among the gods; with a view of obtaining this supremacy 
the god Zu stole them from Bel, but Shamash the Sun-god compelled 
him to restoie them. See pp. 193 f. 

* A title of the god Ea. 



MARDUK, THE CHAMPION OF THE GODS, ^T 

" To set out against Tiamat his heart has prompted 

(laim). 
" He opened his mouth and spake unto me : 
" ' If I, your avenger, 
" Conquer Tiamat and give you life, 
"Appoint an assembly, make my fate pre-eminent 

and proclaim it. 
"In Upshukkinnaku ^ seat yourselves joyfully to- 
gether. 
"With my mouth like you will I decree fate. 
" Whatsoever I do, shall remain unaltered, 
"The word of my lips shall never be changed nor 

made of no avail,' 
"Hasten therefore and swiftly decree for him the 

fate which you bestow, 
" That he may go and fight your strong enemy ! " 
The narrative continues : — 
" Gaga went, he took his way and 
"Humbly before Lakhmu and Lakhamu, the gods, 

his fathers, 
"He made obeisance, and he kissed the ground at 

their feet. 
" He humbled himself ; then he stood up and spake 

unto them." 
Gaga then repeats the message which Anshar has 
given to him, but, as it corresponds word for word 
with the speech of Anshar quoted above, it may here 

• The name of the place where the gods met together. 



68 THE ASSEMBLY OF THE GODS. 

be omitted. The narrative describes the effect of 
Gaga's message in the following words : — 

" Lakhmu and Lakhamu heard and [were afraid], 

" All of the Igigi wailed bitterly, (saying) : 

" ' What has been changed that they should conceive 

[this hatred] ? 
" We do not understand the deed of Tiamat ! ' 
" Then did they collect and go, 
" The great gods, all of them, who decree fate. 
"They entered in before Anshar, they filled [the 

chamber] ; 
" They pressed on one another, in the assembly . . . 
"They made ready for the feast, at the banquet 

they sat ; 
" They ate bread, they mixed sesame- wine. 
" The sweet drink, the mead, confused their [senses], 
"They became drunk with drinking, their bodies 

were filled (with meat and drink). 
"Their limbs were wholly relaxed, and their spirit 

was exalted ; 
"Then for Marduk, their avenger, did they decree 

the fate." 
At this point the Third Tablet of the series 

ends. 
The Fourth Tablet opens with a description of the 
ceremony of decreeing fate for Marduk thus : — 
" They prepared for him a lordly chamber, 
" Before his fathers as counsellor he took his place." 



THEIR ADDRESS TO MARDUK. 69 

When Marduk had taken his seat, the gods addressed 
him in the following words : — 

" Thou art chiefest among the great gods, 

" Thy fate is unequalled, thy word is Anu ! ^ 

" Marduk, thou art chiefest among the great gods, 

" Thy fate is unequalled, thy word is Anu ! 

"Henceforbh not without avail shall be thy com- 
mand, 

" In thy power shall it be to exalt and to abase. 

" Established shall be the word of thy mouth, irre- 
sistible shall be thy command ; 

"None among the gods shall transgress thy 
boundary. 

" Abundance, the desire of the shrines of the gods, 

" Shall be established in thy sanctuary, even though 
they lack (offerings). 

" Marduk, thou art our avenger ! 

" We give thee sovereignty over the whole world. 

"Sit thou down in majesty, be exalted in thy 
command. 

"Thy weapon shall never lose its power, it shall 
crush thy foe. 

" lord, spare the life of him that putteth his trust 
in thee, 

" But as for the god who led the rebellion,^ pour out 
his life ! " 

' I.e., " Tliy word has the same power as that of Ami." 
' Literally, " began the evil." 



70 MARDUK TESTS HIS POWER. 

But before Marduk set out to do battle with Tiaraat, 
the gods wished him to put to the test the power 
which they had conferred upon him, and with this 
object in view they brought a garment into their 
midst, and then addressed their avenger, saying : — 
" ' May thy fate, lord, be supreme among the 

gods, 
"To destroy and to create; speak thou the word, 

and (thy command) shall be fulfilled. 
" Command now and let the garment vanish ; 
"And speak the word again and let the garment 

reappear ! '" 
In obedience to the words of the gods Marduk 
" Spake with his mouth, and the garment vanished ; 
"Again he commanded it, and the garment re- 
appeared. 
" When the gods, his fathers, beheld (the fulfilment 

of) his word, 
"They rejoiced, and they did homage (unto him, 

saying), ' Marduk is king ! ' 
"They bestowed upon him the sceptre, and the 

throne, and the ring, 
" They gave him an invincible weapon, wherewith 

to overwhelm the foe. 
" ' Go,' (they said), ' and cut off the life of Tiamat, 
" And let the wind carry her blood into secret places.' 
" (Thus) did the gods, his fathers, decree for the lord 

his fate ; 



HE PREPARES FOR BATTLE. 71 

" They caused him to set out on a path of prosperity 

and success. 
"He made ready the bow, he girded his weapon 

upon him, 
" He slung a spear upon him and fastened it, . . . 
" He raised the club, in his right hand he grasped (it), 
" The bow and the quiver he hung at his side. 
" He set the lightning in front of him, 
" With burning flame he filled his body. 
"He made a net to enclose the inward parts of 

Tiamat, 
" The four winds he set so that nothing of her might 

escape ; 
"The South wind, and the North wind, and the 

East wind, and the "West wind 
"He brought near to the net which his father Anu 

had given him. 
" He created the evil wind, and the storm, and the 

hurricane, 
" The four-fold wind, and the seven-fold wind, and 

the whirlwind, the wind which was without 

equal ; 
"He sent forth the winds which he had created, 

seven in all, 
" To destroy the inward parts of Tiamat ; and they 

followed after him. 
"Then the lord raised the thunderbolt, his mighty 

weapon, 



72 THE MEETING OF MARDUK AND TIAMAT. 

" He mounted the chariot, an object unequalled for 

terror, 
" He harnessed four horses and yoked them to it, 
" [All of them] ferocious, and high of courage, and 

swift of pace ; 
" [They gnashed with] their teeth, their bodies were 

ilecked with foam, 
" They had been [trained to gallop], they had been 

taught to trample underfoot." 
Thus, standing in his chariot, and followed by the 
seven winds he had created, did Marduk set out for 
the fight. His advance against Tianiat in the sight of 
all the gods is described in the following words : — 
" Then the lord drew nigh, on Tiamat he gazed, 
" He beheld the scorn (?) of Kingu, her spouse. 
"As (Marduk) gazed, (Kingu) was troubled in his 

gait, 
" His will was destroyed and his movements ceased. 
" And the gods, his helpers, who marched by his side, 
" Beheld their leader's [distress], and their sight was 

troubled." 
But Tiamat stood firm, with unbent neck, and 
taunted Marduk and the gods who were gathered in 
safety behind him ; to these taunts Marduk replied 
by reproaching her with her treachery, and he bade her 
prepare for battle in these words : — 

" ' Let thy hosts be equipped, and let thy weapons be 
set in order ! 



THE DEATH OF TIAMAT. 73 

" Stand ! I and thou, let us join battle ! ' 

" When Tiamat heard these words, 

■" She was like one possessed, she lost her senses, 

"" She uttered loud, angry cries. 

" She trembled and shook to her very foundations. 

"She recited an incantation, she pronounced her 

spell, 
■"And the gods of the battle cried out for their 

weapons. 
" Then advanced Tiamat and Marduk, the counsellor 

of the gods ; 
" To the fight they came on, to the battle they drew 

nigh. 
" The lord spread out his net to catch her, 
'" The evil wind that was behind (him) he let loose in 

her face. 
^' As Tiamat opened her mouth to its full extent, 
" He drove in the evil wind, while as yet she had 

not shut her lips. 
" The terrible winds filled her belly, 
■" And her courage was taken from her, and her mouth 

she opened wide. 
" He seized the spear and broke through her belly, 
" He severed her inward parts, he pierced her heart. 
" He overcame her and cut off her life ; 
" He cast down her body and stood upon it. 
"" When he had slain Tiamat, the leader, 
■" Her might was broken, her force was scattered. 



74 CAPTURE OF THE REBEL HOST. 

"And the gods, lier helpers, who marched by her 

side, 
" Trenibled, and were afraid, and turned back. 
" They took to flight to save their lives ; 
" In an enclosure they were caught, they were not 

able to escape. 
" He took them captive, he broke their weapons ; 
" In the net they were caught and in the snare they 

sat down. 
" [The whole] world they filled with cries of grief. 
"They received punishment from, him, they were 

held in bondage. 
" And on the eleven creatiires whom she had filled 

with the power of striking terror, 
" The troop of devils which marched at her bidding (?), 
" He brought affliction, [he destroyed] their power ; 
" Them and their opposition he trampled under his 

feet. 
" Moreover Kingu, who had been made leader [over 

all of] them, 
"He conquered and like unto the god ... he 

counted him. 
"He took from Kingu the Tablets of Destiny that 

were not [rightly] his, 
" He sealed them with a seal and on his own breast 

he Isiid them. 
" Now after the valiant Marduk had conquered and 

destroyed his enemies, 



THE CREATION OF HEAVEN. 'jy 

" And had made the arrogant foe even like a broken 

reed (?), 
" He fully established Anshar's triumph over the 

enemy, 
" And attained the purpose of Nudimmud. 
" Over the gods that were captive he strengthened 

his durance. 
" To Tiamat, whom he had conquered, he returned, 
" And the lord stood upon Tiamat's hinder parts ; 
" With his merciless club he smashed her skull ; 
" He cut the channels of her blood, 
" He made the North wind bear it away into secret 

places. 
"His fathers beheld, they rejoiced and were glad; 
" Presents and gifts they brought unto him. 
" Then the lord rested, and gazed on her dead body. 
" He divided the flesh of the body, having devised a 

cunning plan. 
" He split her up like a flat fish into two halves. 
" One half of her he set in place as a covering for 

the heavens. 
" He fixed a bolt, he stationed watchmen, 
" And bade them not to let her waters come forth. 
" He passed through the heavens, he surveyed the 

regions (thereof), 
"Over against the Deep he set the dwelling of 

Nudimmud. 
" And the lord measured the structure of the Deep, 



78 THE MEANING OF E-SHARA. 

" And he founded E-shara, a mansion like unto it. 

" The mansion E-shara, which he created as heaven, 

"He caused Anu, Bel and Ea in their districts to 
inhabit." 

With these words the Fourth Tablet of the series 
ends. 

Marduk having conquered TiSmat, thus began the 
work of creation. From one half of the monster's body 
he fashioned heaven in the form of a solid covering, 
which he also furnished with bolts and watchmen to 
keep the waters which were above it in their place. 
The dwelling of Nudimmud he fixed in the deep, i.e., 
the abyss of waters beneath the earth, and he also 
founded E-shara. Some think that E-shara is the earth ; ^ 
and according to this view Marduk may be regarded as 
having now created and set in place, the heavens, and 
the earth, and the waters which were beneath the earth. 
Others, however, consider E-shara to be a name for 
heaven, or for a part of it, and the last two lines of 
the Fourth Tablet of the poem certainly favour this 
view. The most natural meaning of the passage is 
that Marduk made the mansion of E-shara to be 
heaven, which he then divided between the three gods 
Anu, Bel and Ea. Moreover we know from other sources 
that these three gods, in addition to ruling the heaven, 
and the earth, and the abyss respectively, in their 
astrological characters divided the heaven between 

' See Jensen, Die Eosmologie der Salyhnier, pp. 195 ff. 



CREATION OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES. 79 

them ; ^ and the position of certain stars is noted in 
astrological tablets by apportioning them to the various 
dominions of these deities. According to the former 
view this passage in the poem means that Marduk 
created E-shara (the earth) "like a heavenly vault," ^ 
i.e., in the form of a hollow hemisphere like the firma- 
ment overhead ; but to obtain this sense the ordinary 
meaning of the words has to be strained considerably. 

In the Pifth Tablet of the series Marduk continued 
the work of creation. He had already portioned out 
the heavens and the abyss, and he now assigned to each 
part its separate function, and laid down laws for 
the regulation of the whole. The tablet describes the 
creation of the heavenly bodies and the regulation of 
the seasons, but unfortunately only the beginning part 
has been preserved. The text reads : — 

" He made the stations for the great gods, 

"The stars, their images, (and) the constellations 
he fixed ; 

"He ordained the year and into sections he 
divided it. 

" For the twelve months he fixed three stars. 

"From the day when the year comes forth ^ until 
(its) close, 

"He founded the station of Nibir* to determine 
their bounds ; 

' See above, p. 26. 

« See Jensen, op. eit., p. 289. ' I.e., begins. * J.e, Jupiter. 



So THE MOON TO RULE THE NIGHT. 

" That none might err or go astray, 
" He set the stations of Bel and Ea along with him. 
" He opened great gates on both sides (of the firma- 
ment), 
"He made strong the bolt on the left and on the 

right, 
" In the midst thereof he fixed the zenith. 
"The Moon-god he caused to shine forth, the night 

he entrusted to him. 
" He appointed him, a being of the night, to deter- 
mine the days. 
"Every month without ceasing with the crown he 

covered (?) him, (saying) : 
"'At the beginning of the month, at the shining 

of the . . . , 
"Thou shalt command the horns to determine six 

days, 
" And on the seventh day to [divide] the crown.' " 
Here the text becomes too broken to make a con- 
nected translation, though from what remains it may 
be gathered that Marduk continued to address the 
Moon-god, and to define his position with regard to 
Shamash, the Sun-god, at the different points of his 
course. What the actually missing portion of the 
text contained we cannot say with certainty, but we 
may conjecture that it described further acts of creation. 
That there was a Sixth Tablet is proved by the catch- 
line at the end of the Eifth Tablet, and the text of this 



CREATION OF BEASTS OF THE FIELD. 8 1 

also must have referred to the same subject. There is 
no evidence to show how many tablets were comprised 
in the Creation Series, although some have thought 
that the number was greater than six. Fragments of 
tablets have been found which refer to acts of creation, 
and as. these cannot be fitted into places in the 
tablets already described, it has been suggested they 
formed parts of the tablets which seem to be missing. 
One such fragment is of especial interest, for it con- 
tains a reference to the creation of the " beasts of 
"the field, the cattle of the field, and the creeping 
" things of the field." It is improbable that the frag- 
ment belonged to the Creation Series, inasmuch as the 
gods as a body, and not Marduk alone, are credited by 
it with the creation of the world, and besides this the 
god Ea, Marduk's father, is mentioned as taking a 
prominent part in the work. The fragment in fact 
reproduces a variant form of the creation legend, but 
its description of the creation of the beasts may well be 
cited in favour of the view that some missing portion 
of the poem contained a similar episode. The fragment 
which contains the opening lines of the tablet 
begins : — 

" When all the gods had made [the world], 
" Had created the heavens, had formed [the earth], 
" Had brought living creatures into being . . . , 
" The cattle of the field, the [beasts] of the field, and 
the creeping things [of the field], . . ." 

BAB, KEL. G 



82 CREATION OF MANKIND. 

The rest of the fragment is too broken to admit 
of a trustworthy restoration of the text, though the 
reference to Nin-igi-azag, i.e., " the lord of clear vision," 
a title of the god Ea, seems to connect him with some 
further act of creation. 

There are also some grounds for believing that in 
addition to the creation of animals some portion of the 
poem described the creation of mankind. A hymn 
has been found inscribed upon a tablet which con- 
tains a number of remarkable addresses in honour 
of the god Marduk, and, as many of them refer to his 
acts of creation, it has been thought that the com- 
position formed the concluding tablet of the series.^ 
After addressing him as one who shewed mercy to 
the gods he had taken captive, and who removed the 
yoke from the neck of the gods his enemies,^ the hymn 
refers to his having created men and declares that his 
word shall be established and shall not be forgotten 
" in the mouth of the black-headed ones (i.e., mankind) 
"whom his hands have created." In view of this 
evidence it may be concluded that the description of 
the creation of mankind had a place in the tablets that 
are missing ; and it is probable that upon another 
fragment of a tablet ^ we have a copy of the instructions 
which Marduk was believed to have given to man 

' British Museum, K. 8522. See G. Smith, Tram. Soe. Sibl Arch 
Vol. IV., p. 363, and plates 3 and 4. ' '' 

^ The allusion here is to the Fourth Tablet ; see above, p 74 
' British JWuseum, K. 3364. ' ' 



THE DUTIES OF MAN. 83 

after his creation. The following extracts from this 
fragment reveal a very lofty conception of man's duties 
towards his god and towards his neighbour : — 
" Towards thy god shalt thou be pure of heart, 
" For that is the glorj' of the godhead ; 
" Prayer and supplication and bowing low to the 

earth, 
"Early in the morning shalt thou offer unto 

him . . ." 
A little further on Marduk continues : — 
" The fear of god begets mercy, 
" Offerings increase life, 
" And prayer absolves from sin, 
"He that fears the gods shall not cry aloud [in 

grief], 
"He that fears the Anunnaki^ shall have a long 

[life]. 
" Against friend and neighbour thou shalt not speak 

[evil]. 
" Speak not of things that are hidden, [practice] 

mercy. 
" When thou makest a promise (to give), give and 

[hold] not [back]." 

In the hymn which has been referred to in the 

previous paragraph as having not improbably formed 

the concluding tablet of the series, the other gods are 

represented as addressing Marduk, their deliverer, by 

• I.e., the Spirlta cf tie Eaith. 



84 LAST TABLET OF THE POEM. 

every conceivable name and title of honour. They 
called him "the life of all the gods," "the god of 
" pure life," " the bringer of purification," " the god of 
" the favouring breeze," " the lord of hearing and mercy," 
"the creator of abundance and mercy, who establishes 
" plenteousness, and increases all that is small " ; and it 
is also said that when the gods themselves were in sore 
distress they felt his favouring breeze. The text con- 
tinues in the above strain, referring to his mercy towards 
his opponents, his conquest of Tiamat, and his acts of 
creation, and Bel and Ea are made to bestow their own 
titles upon him. Finally the wise are bidden to ponder 
on the story, the father is to teach it to his son, and the 
prince or ruler is to listen to its recital. With such an 
ode to Marduk as the god of creation the great poem 
might fitly conclude. 

In addition to the great poem, there is reason to 
believe that several different accounts of the creation 
were current in Babylonian literature. One such 
account is preserved on a broken tablet from Ashur- 
bani-pal's library, which contains a very different 
description of the great battle with the dragon to that 
given in the Fourth Tablet of the Creation Series. In 
this version the fight does not precede the creation of 
the world but takes place after man has been created 
and cities built. In fact, men and gods are equally 
terrified at the dragon's appearance, and it is to de- 
liver the lands from the monster that one of the gods 



ANOTHER DESCRIPTION OF TIAMAT. 85 

goes out and slays him. The text begins with a 
description of the terror which came upon creation at 
the advent of Tiamat, who has, however, become a male 
monster, and says : — 

" The cities sighed, men [groaned aloud], 

"Men uttered lamentation, [they wailed grievously]. 

" For their lamentation there was none [to help], 

" For their grief there was none to take [them by the 
hand]. 

" Who was the [great] dragon ? 

" Tiamat ^ was the [great] dragon ! 

" Bel in heaven has formed [his image]. 

"Fifty Jcashv,^ is his length, one Icaslu [is his 
breadth], 

" Half a rod (?) is his mouth, one rod (?) [his , . .]." 

The next few lines continue the description of the 
dragon, and give the measurements of other parts of 
his body as being " sixty rods " and " sixty-five rods," 
and narrate how he wallowed in the water and lashed 
his tail. All the gods in heaven were afraid. They 
bowed down and grasped the robe of the Moon-god Sin, 
and they cried out asking who would go out and slay 
the monster, and deliver the broad earth, and so make 
himself king. They then appealed to the god Sukh 
to undertake the task, but he made excuses. Who 

' Heie called Tamtu, " (he Sea." 

' The hatbu is a space that can be covered in two hours' travelling ; 
i.e., about six or seven miles. 



86 THE dragon's blood. 

eventually consented to do battle with the dragon we 
do not know, for the text is broken, but it is probable 
that in this version also Marduk was the hero. The 
end of the composition, in which we find the god, 
whoever he may have been, setting out to do battle, 
while one of the other gods cries to him in encourage- 
ment, has fortunately been preserved ; it reads : — 

'"Stir up cloud, storm [and tempest], 

" Set the seal of thy life before thy face ^ , . . , 

" And slay the dragon ! ' 

" He stirred up cloud, and storm [and tempest], 

" He set the seal of his life before his face ...» 

" And he slew the dragon. 

" For three years and three months, day and [night], 

" The blood of the dragon flowed . . ." 

The details as to the size of the dragon and the 
amount of his blood are of considerable interest. In 
the Creation Series the North wind is said to have 
carried the blood away into secret places, and the 
prominence given to the dragon's blood in both versions 
lends colour to a suggestion that has been made with 
regard to one of the details in the account of creation 
given by Berosus. In that version Bel is said to have 
formed animals and men from earth mixed with his 
own blood after one of the gods had, at his com- 
mand, cut off his head. The account would afford a 
much closer parallel to the legend as we find it on 

• I.e., as a, protection against the monster. 



OTHER VERSIONS OF THE CREATION STORY. 87 

the tablet3 if we might assume that it was not his 
own blood, hut that of Tiamat, which Bel used for the 
purpose. It is possible that either Polyhistor or 
Eusebius, or both, misunderstood the original story. 

We have described the great story of the creation 
which was current in Assyria during the seventh 
century before Christ, as far as its contents can be 
ascertained from the fragments that have come down 
to us. The numerous tablets and duplicates in- 
scribed with the legend, which have been found in 
the ruins of Ashur-bani-pal's library, indicate the 
important position it held among the religious and 
mythological works of the period ; and we are right 
in assuming that this version of the creation was the 
one most widely accepted during the reigns of the 
later Assyrian kings. But, although the poem in 
the form in which we now have it represents the 
belief most generally held by the Babylonians and 
Assyrians at this comparatively late period with regard 
to the manner in which the world came into being, 
it can only have attained this position gradually. 
Babylonian literature, in fact, comprises fragments of 
other myths and legends which give different accounts 
of the way in which creation took place, and, as one 
of these is of considerable importance, by reason 
of the light it throws upon the age and history of 
such legends in Babylonia, it will be convenient to 
describe it before considering what connection there 



S3 THE SUMERIAN STORY OF CREATION. 

may have been between the Babylonian poem and the 
story of creation in the first chapter of Genesis. 

After the great Creation Series the longest, and 
indeed the only other distinct version of the story of 
the creation in Babylonian literature now known is 
found upon one side of a broken incantation-tablet,^ 
which was inscribed in the Neo-Babylonian period not 
earlier than 600 B.C. It was found at Abu-habbah, the 
site of the ancient city of Sippar in Northern Baby- 
lonia, in 1882. 

The inscription is of great interest, for it is written 
in the ancient Sumeriau language, and to each line is 
attached a translation in Semitic Babylonian, The 
account of the creation here given offers few parallels 
to the great Creation Series which has been described 
above. It is true that the god Marduk is credited with 
the creation of the world, but there is no mention of 
the battle which the god successfully waged against the 
powers of chaos before the earth came into being. In 
fact the god proceeds to the work of creation without 
any previous struggle and entirely of his own free will. 
The tablet opens with a description of chaos at a period 
Avhen the ancient cities and temples of the land had no 
existence, when no towns had been buUt, nor any 
vegetation created — in short, all lands were sea. In 
the account of the creation that follows it is possible 
that the order in which the various acts are described 

' British Maseiim, No. 82-5-22, 1048. 



DESCRIPTION OF CHAOS. 89 

is not intended to be chronological, but is dictated by 
the structure of the poem. Otherwise we must assume 
that the cities of Eridu and Babylon and the temple 
E-sagil were the things first created, and that their 
creation preceded not only the construction of the cities 
of Mppur and Erech and their temples, but even the 
creation of mankind, and the beasts of the field, and 
vegetation, and the rivers of Babylonia. Marduk's act 
of laying a reed, or bank of reeds, upon the waters and 
creating dust which he poured out round about it would 
appear to be merely a device for forming dry land in 
the expanse of waters, and his object in laying in 
■a dam or embankment at the edge of the waters was 
evidently to keep the sea from flooding the land he had 
so formed. The text reads as follows : — 

"The holy temple, the temple of the gods, in the 
holy place had not yet been made ; 

" No reed had sprung up, no tree had been created. 

" No brick had, been laid, no building had been set up ; 

" No house had been erected, no city had been built ; 

" No city had been made, no dwelling-place had been 
prepared. 

"Nippur had not been made, E-kur had not been 
built ; 

"Erech had not been created, E-ana had not been 
built; 

" The Deep had not been created, Eridu had not been 
built; 



go THE FORMATION OF DRY LAND. 

"Of the pure temple, the temple of the gods, the 

habitation had not been made, 
" All lands were sea. 

" At length there was a movement in the sea, 
" Then was Eridu made, and E-sagil was built, 
"E-sagil, where in the midst of the Deep the god 

Lugal-dul-azaga dwells. 
"The city of Babylon was built, and E-sagil was 

finished. 
" The gods, the Anunnaki, were created at one 

time; 
" The holy city, the dwelling of their hearts' desire, 

they proclaimed supreme. 
" Marduk laid a reed upon the face of the waters, 
" He formed dust and poured it out upon the reed. 
" That he might cause the gods to dwell in the habi- 
tation of their hearts' desire, 
" He formed mankind. 
" The goddess Aruru together with him created the 

seed of mankind. 
" He formed the beasts of the field and the cattle of 

the field. 
" He created the Tigris, and the Eui^hrates, and he 

set them in their place, 
" Their names he declared to be good. 
" The Ms/isAw-plant, the dittu-T^lant of the marsh, the 

reed and the forest he created, 
" The lands, and the marshes, and the swamps ; 



THE CREATION OF MEN AND CITIES. 91 

" The wild cow and her young, that is the wild ox ; 
the ewe and her young, that is the lamb of the 
fold; 

" Plantations and forests ; 

" The he-goat, and the mountain-goat, and the . . . 

" The lord Marduk laid in a dam by the side of the 
sea, 

" as before he had not made, 

" he brought into existence. 

" trees he created, 

" [Bricks] he made in their place. 

" . . . . . brickwork he made ; 

'• [Houses he made], cities he built ; 

" [Cities he made], dwelling-places he prepared. 

" [Nippur he made], E-kur he built ; 

" [Erech he made], E-ana he built." 

The rest of the legend is broken off, and the reverse 
of the tablet does not contain a continuation of the 
legend, but a prayer, or incantation, which was to be 
recited for the purification of the temple E-zida in 
Borsippa. The connection between the legend and the 
incantation is not obvious, but the fact that the legend 
is found upon an incantation tablet does not detract 
from its value, and does not indicate a late date for its 
composition. In fact, as will presently be pointed out, 
there are grounds for believing that the legend may go 
back to a time when Sumerian was still a living 
language, and when it was not merely a dead tongue 



92 THE "CUTHyEAN LEGEND OF CREATION." 

employed in religious ritual and known only to the 
scribes. 

In this connection mention must be made of two 
tablets, which are frequently said to contain the 
" Cuthaean legend of Creation," and have been thought 
to describe a local account of the creation which was 
current in the ancient city of Cuthah. It has been 
asserted that this legend gives an account of the creation 
of the world by Nergal, the god of Cuthah, after he had 
conquered the brood of monsters which Tiamat had 
brought forth. Eecently, however, it has been pointed 
out ^ that the tablets are not concerned with the creation, 
but with the fortunes of an early Babylonian king. In 
the reign of this king, whose name is unknown, the land 
was invaded by a strange race of monsters who were 
descended from the gods, and for three years the king 
waged war against this foe unsuccessfully, but at length 
he defeated them. In fact, the tablets have nothing 
whatever to do with the creation or with the fight 
between Tiamat and the gods ; but, as the two tablets 
which contain this story have been regarded as frag- 
ments of a legend of the creation, it will perhaps be 
well to give a translation of them. The words of the 
text are put in the mouth of the king himself, who 
throughout speaks in the first person ; the beginnings 
of both the tablets are missing, but where the text 

' See Zimmern, Zeitschrifl fur Assyriologie, Bd. XII. (1898), pp. 
317 ff. 



INVASION OF THE LAND BY MONSTERS, 93 

becomes continuous we find a description of the strange 
monsters, -which had invaded the land, in the following 
words : — 

"A people who drink turbid water, and who drink 

not pure water, 
" Whose sense is perverted, have taken (men) captive, 

have triumphed over them, and have committed 

slaughter. 
" On a tablet nought is written, nought is left (to 

write).'' In mine own person 
" I went not forth, I did not give them battle. 
" A people who have the bodies of birds of the hollow, 

men who have the faces of ravens, 
" Did the great gods create. 

" In the ground the gods created' a dwelling for them, 
" Tiamat gave them suck, 

" The lady of the gods brought them into the world. 
" In the midst of the mountain (of the world), they 

became strong, they waxed great, they multiplied 

exceedingly. 
" Seven kings, brethren, fair and comely, 
" 360,000 in number were their warriors, 
" Banini, their father, was king ; their mother, Melili, 

queen. 
"Their eldest brother, their leader, was named 

Memangab, 

' J.e., the city was in confusion, and no business was transacted, 
and no records kept. 



94 DEFEAT OF THE KING'S FORCES. 

" Their second brother was named Medudu." 

The tablet then gives the names of the other five 
brethren, all of which are, however, broken. After the 
names a gap occurs in the legend, for the beginning of 
the second column of the principal tablet is missing. 
Where the story is again connected we find the king 
had enc[uired of the gods if he should give the enemy- 
battle. He addressed them through his priests, and 
offered up to them offerings of lambs, which he placed 
in rows of seven. The answer of the gods was evidently 
favourable, for he decided to engage the enemy ; but 
for a space of three years every man he sent. against 
the foe was destroyed. The text continues : — 

" As the first year drew near, 

" 120,000 warriors I sent out, but not one of them 
returned alive. 

" As the second year drew near, 

"90,000 warriors I sent out, but not one of them 
returned alive. 

" As the third year drew near, 

" 60,700 warriors I sent out, but not one returned 
alive. 

" Despairing, powerless, perishing, I was full of woe, 
and I groaned aloud, 

" And said I to my heart : ' By my life ! 

" "What have I brought upon my realm ! 

"I am a king, who hath brought no prosperity to 
his country. 



HIS FINAL VICTORY. 95 

"And a shepherd, who hath brought no prosperity 

to his people. 
" But this thing -will I do. In mine own person 

will I go forth ! 
" The pride of the people of the night I will curse 

with death and destruction, 
" With fear, terror, . . . and famine, 
"... and with misery of every kind ! ' " 
The king then foretold the destruction of his enemies 
hy means, apparently, of a deluge, and before setting 
out to meet them he again offered up offerings to the 
gods. How he conquered the enemy we do not know, 
but the fact that he went forth in his own person to do 
battle against them evidently secured for him the favour 
of the gods, and victory over the monstrous creatures 
who had so long oppressed his land. In the latter 
portion of the legend the king addresses words of 
encouragement to any future prince who shall rule over 
his kingdom. The king exhorts his successor when in 
peril, not to despair, but to take courage from his own 
example, in the following words : — 

"Thou, king, or ruler, or prince, or any one 

whatsoever, 
" Whom the god shall call to rule over the kingdom, 
" A tablet concerning these matters have I made for 

thee, and a record have I written for thee. 
" In the city of Cuthah, in the temple E-shidlam, 
" In the shrine of Nergal have I deposited it for thee. 



96 THE LEGEND OF CUTHAII 

" Behold this record, and 

" To the words thereof hearketi, 

" That thou mayest not despair, nor be feeble, 

" That thou mayest not fear, nor be affrighted. 

" Stablish thyself firmly, 

" Sleep in peace beside thy -wife, 

" Strengthen thy walls, 

" Fill thy trenches with water, 

" Bring in thy treasure-chests, and thy corn, and thy 
silver, and thy goods, and thy possessions, 

" [And thy weapons], and thy household stuff." 

The ruler himself is bidden to take heed unto his 
own safety, not to go forth nor to draw near his foe. 
The meaning of the exhortation seems to be that as in' 
days of old the gods helped the king of the land and 
turned his mourning into victory, so in the future when 
the land is in sore trouble and the foe is at the gate the 
king is not to despair but to expect that the gods will 
help him also. 

This legend has for some years been known as " the 
Cuthsean legend of Creation," but from the above 
translation it will be seen that the description is 
inaccurate. It was thought that the poem was spoken 
by the god Nergal, who was supposed to be waging war 
against the brood of Tiamat, and it was assumed that 
Nergal took the place of Marduk in accordance with 
local tradition at Cuthah. It is clear, however, that 
although the tablet on which the legend was inscribed 



NOT A CREATION LEGEND. 97 

was meant to be preserved at Cuthah in the shrine of 
Nergal (as stated towards the end of the poem) the 
speaker is not the god Nergal but an old Babylonian 
king ; and we have already seen that this king recounts 
how the gods delivered him and his land from the 
hosts of the monsters. It is true that in the descrip- 
tion of the monsters, some of which had the bodies 
of birds and others the heads of ravens, Tiamat is 
mentioned as having suckled them; but this state- 
ment hardly affords sufficient evidence to justify their 
identification with her monster brood which has already 
been described in the Creation story. It is more 
probable that Tiamat is called their foster-mother in 
order to indicate their terrible nature. Moreover, the 
speaker in the poem does not perform any acts of 
creation, but does battle with the monsters merely to 
deliver his land from their assault. 

In conclusion it may be mentioned that last year a 
fragment of a Babylonian tablet preserved in the 
Imperial Ottoman Museum at Constantinople was 
published,^ which contains part of a copy of this legend ; 
the inscription upon it is a parallel and not a duplicate 
text. If, as has been stated, this fragment belongs to 
the old Babylonian period, it will afford valuable 
evidence of the early existence of these legends in 
Babylonia. 

The great Babylonian legend of creation has been 

' See Sohoil, Becueil de Travaux, Vol. XX., p. 65 f. 
BAB. KEL. II 



98 DATE OF THE CREATION LEGENDS. 

examined and its variant forms have been traced, so far 
as they can be restored from late Assyrian and Baby- 
lonian tablets, and from the extract from the history 
of Berosus which has come down to us. Not one of 
the tablets on which the legends are written belongs 
to a period earlier than the seventh century B.C., and 
the question naturally arises, Do the legends they 
contain also date from the seventh century, or must 
they be referred to some earlier period? In other 
words. Were they composed by the priestly scribes who 
had them written upon the actual tablets which we 
possess, or did these scribes simply copy the documents 
belonging to an older period ? And, if the scribes of 
the seventh century were mere copyists and not com- 
posers, we must also ask. To what period must we 
assign the origin of the old texts which they copied ? 
These questions can, fortunately, be decided by a careful 
examination of the available evidence. 

The first question is best answered by considering 
the various forms which the Creation legends assume 
on different tablets. Were the legends brand-new com- 
positions of the seventh century we should expect to 
find all the copies which were written at the same time 
and preserved in the same library agreeing closely with 
each other. It is true that we do find several copies of 
the Creation tablets which correspond with each other 
word for word, and these were, no doubt, made from 
some common archetype. But we also possess another 



INDICATIONS OF THEIR EARLY ORIGIN. 99 

tablet from Ashur-bani-pal's library, whicb gives quite 
a different account of the struggle with Tiamat. The 
tablet has been already referred to,^ and we have seen 
that on it the fight is described as taking place after 
and not before creation, and that Tiamat's body is not 
used to form the vault of heaven ; moreover, the dragon 
is a male and not a female monster, and the description 
of it is quite different from that in the Creation Series ; 
and finally another god than Anu is first of all asked 
to go forth and slay her. Other events differently 
described may have been narrated on the tablet, for 
only a fragment of it has been preserved ; but those that 
we have enumerated are sufficient to prove our point. 
Such variant forms of the same story cannot have 
arisen in one generation. They presuppose many 
centuries of tradition, during which the two accounts 
were handed down independently. Though the two 
stories were derived from a common original, they 
were related in different cities in different ways. At 
first they were probably identical in form, but in 
course of time variations crept in, and two or more 
forms of the story were developed along different lines. 
The process must have been gradual, and the resultant 
forms of the story afford sufficient evidence as to the 
great age of their common ancestor. That they were 
found together in Ashur-bani-pal's library is to be 
explained as the result of that monarch's energy 
' See pp. 84 ff. 



100 -EVIDENCE FROM SEPARATE VERSIONS. 

in scouring the country for literary and religious 
works. 

A similar conclusion follows if we compare the two 
separate and distinct versions of the creation which 
have also been described above.^ In both of them 
Marduk is the creator of the world, but, while the 
great Creation Series is chiefly taken up with the revolt 
and conc[uest of Tiamat as a necessary preliminary to the 
creation of the world, in the shorter Sumerian version 
there is no trace of such a conflict, nor is the dragon 
Tiamat even mentioned. In this tablet we have an 
instance of quite a different version of the creation which 
we may perhaps assume goes back to a period when 
the dragon-myth had not become associated with the 
creation of the world. The so-called " Cuthsean legend 
of Creation " cannot be cited as a true variant form of 
the legend, for, as we have seen, it is not a creation 
legend at all, but a story of an old Babylonian king. 
It contains a reference to the dragon Tiamat, however, 
and evidently presupposes on the part of the reader 
a knowledge of the story concerning the monsters to 
which she is said to have given birth. If the frag- 
mentary duplicate of the inscription which has recently 
been found ^ was written in the old Babylonian period, 
this reference to Tiamat in the legend is important 
evidence for the early date of the dragon-myth. But, 

' I.e., the great Creation Series on pp. 61 ff., and the Sumerian 
version of the Creation on pp. 88 ff. 
^ See p. 97. 



EVIDENCE FROM SCULPTURE. lOI 

even if we leave the Cuthsean tablet out of account 
altogether, the existence of the two versions of the 
Creation story and the variants we have traced in the 
accounts of the fight with Tiamat prove conclusively 
their early origin. 

So far we have considered the internal evidence of 
date offered by the legends themselves. Additional 
evidence, pointing in the same direction, is afforded by 
a study of certain aspects of Babylonian and Assyrian 
art. In a temple built by Ashur-natsir-pal at Nimrud, 
the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Calah, there 
was found a slab sculptured in relief with a represen- 
tation of the fight between Marduk and Tiamat.^ The 
monster, half bird, half lion, turns roaring in anger 
towards the god who, in human form and borne upon 
four wings, swoops down to give battle. Now Ashur- 
natsir-pal reigned from B.C. 884 to B.C. 860, so that 
we here have evidence of the existence of the legend 
more than two hundred years before the formation of 
the library of Ashur-bani-pal, who reigned from B.C. 669 
to about B.C. 625. Moreover the battle between 
Marduk and Tiamat was a very favourite subject 
for engraving upon cylinder-seals. Numbers of these 
have been found, and many give quite different repre- 
sentations of Tiamat. The god Marduk is generally 
represented in human form with wings, but the 

' In the British Museum, Nimroud Gallery, Nos. 28 and 29. See 
the illustration on p. 75. 



I02 



EVIDENCE FROM CYLINDER-SEALS. 



monster assumes many guises. Sometimes she is 
pictured as a winged and human-headed lion, at other 
times she has the body of a horse or bull, and the 
wings and crested head of a bird. On certain cylinder- 
seals she figures simply as a beast, while on others 
though she has an animal's body she has a woman's 
liead.^ On a very interesting cylinder, here published 









The gorl M^riiuk urmrd with the thunderbolt and other weapons standing on tha 
hack of Tiamat and slaying her. (From a cylinder-seal, in the British M uaeum, 
Ko. 89,533 ) 

for the first time, she is represented as a huge dragon 
on whose back the god Marduk, fully armed, has leapt, 
and he and his ministers are in the act of slaying her. 
It is true that many of these cylinder-seals belong to 
the late Assyrian and Persian periods, i.e., from about 
B.C. 700 to B.C. 300 ; a few, however, are archaic 
in style and may be assigned to a somewhat earlier 
date. But without laying too much stress on the 
possibly early date of some of them, the great variety 



' For reproductions of several cylinder-seals of this class, see tha 
CuUeclioii de Clercq, Plates xxix. ff. 



EVIDENCE FROM HISTORICAL INSCRIPTIONS. 103 

of treatment of the same subject which they present 
certainly points to the existence of many variant forms 
of the legend, and so indirectly bears witness to its 
early origin. 

A third class of evidence for the early date of the 
legends of creation may be found in certain passages 
in the historical inscriptions which record the erection 
of statues and the making of temple furniture, etc., 
in the earlier periods of Babylonian history. In the 
copy of an inscription of Agum, an early Babylonian 
king, who flourished not later than the seventeenth 
century- before Christ, we have, fortunately, an allusion 
to the dragon-myth of Babylonia. Now although we 
do not possess an actual inscription of this king's 
reign, the copy of one in the British Museum, which, 
we know, was made for Ashur-bani-pal,^ is to all 
intents and purposes just as good. From this we 
learn that Agum brought back to Babylon a statue of 
the god Marduk and one of the goddess Tsarpanitum, 
which at some previous time had been carried off to 
the land of Khani which lay to the north-west of 
Babylonia. The statues were carried to the temple 
E-sagil in Babylon, and with much pomp and ceremony 
were re-installed in their shrines. Agum recounts 
at length the sumptuous temple furniture which he 
caused to be made for this occasion, and also the 

' Published in Cuneiform Inecriptions of Western Asia, Vol. V., 
plate 33. 



I04 agum's temple-furniture. 

apparel and head-dresses for the statues of these gods, 
which he caused to be made of fine gold and inlaid 
with precious stones. In the shrine itself, he tdls 
us, he also set a dragon, which must have resembled 
those made at a later time by Nebuchadnezzar and 
Neriglissar,^ and that this dragon was connected with 
Tiamat of the Creation legend is clear from the fact 
that along with her he also set up figures of monsters, 
including vipers, and monsters called laJchmu, and a 
ram, and a hurricane, and a raging hound, and a fish- 
man, and a goat-fish. The list of the eleven classes 
of monsters in the Creation Series gives us monster- 
serpents, and monster-vipers, and a viper, and a 
dragon, and monsters called lakhamu, and a hurricane, 
and a raging hound, and a scorpion-man, and tem- 
pests, and a fish-man, and rams. We are not here 
concerned with the astrological character of these 
monsters, nor with their connection with the origin 
of the signs of the Zodiac ; but what is evident from 
the two lists is that already in the time of Agum 
the legend of Tiamat and her monster brood had been 
accepted and had become absorbed into the ancient 
religious traditions of the land. 
A further reference to the legend may be seen in 

^ When Nebuoliadnezzar II. set up colossal serpents in the gate- 
ways of Babylon in the sixth century before Christ, and when Neri- 
glissar, his successor, set up eight such serpents which he had made 
of bronze and coated with silver, it is toleiably clear that these figures 
were intended to represent the dragon of the Creation story. 



THE "deeps" of bur-sin AND UR-NINA. IO5 

the mention of another object used for ceremonial 
purposes which was given by Agum to Marduk's 
temple. In Marduk's shrine, beside the great serpent 
he set what he terms a tdmtu, or " sea " ; this was, 
no doubt, a large basin, or "laver," similar to the 
brazen sea of Solomon's temple which stood upon 
twelve oxen.' Such a vessel, as its name indicates, 
was symbolical of the abyss of water personified in the 
legend by Apsu and Tiamat, and its mention in the 
inscription in such close connection with the dragon 
and the brood of monsters is peculiarly significant. 
Similar vessels, called apse, i.e., " abysses," or " deeps," 
as we know from other inscriptions, were placed in the 
temples of Babylonia from the earliest periods. Bur- 
Sin, a king of Ur who lived about B.C. 2500, erected 
for the god Enki, or Ea, a zit-ab Tci-ag-ga-ni, " an abyss 
" that was dear to him " ; ^ and in the reign of Ur-Mna, 
an ancient Sumerian king of Shirpurla, and one of the 
earliest rulers of that city whose names have come 
down to us, such vessels were already used in religious 
ceremonies. The latter monarch caused a limestone 
tablet to be inscribed with the list of the temples erected 
during his reign, and in the inscription upon it we read 
that he constructed a zu-db gal, or "great " abyss." ^ 

" 1 Kings vii. 23 ff. 

^ The tablet containing this record is published in Oun. Inscr. of 
\Ve4. Asia, Vol. I., plate 3, No. XII. (I). 

' See De Sarzec, Deiouvertes en Chald^e, plate II., No. 1, Col. III., 
J. 5f. 



I06 SUMERIAN INFLUENCE. 

The fact that at these early periods Ur-Nina and Bur- 
Sin provided their temples with " seas " and " deeps," 
i.e., layers, does not, of course, prove that the Creation 
legends were current among the Sumerians in the forms 
in which we find them on Assyrian tablets of the 
seventh century before Christ. But the references at 
least indicate the source and period to which the legends 
may be traced. The Semitic Babylonians learnt from 
the Sumerians the art of writing; in their business 
transactions they adopted the legal forms and phrases 
that were current in the land before they came there, 
while as for the gods of the conquered race they either 
adopted them or identified them with their own deities. 
It is probable, therefore, that from the Sumerians 
also they took their ideas of the creation of the world. 
We know that at the time of Khammurabi the Semitic 
scribes copied out and studied Sumerian religious 
texts, and from the ancient libraries of Southern 
Babylonia we have recovered religious compositions 
bearing a striking resemblance to those which were 
employed in the Assyrian temples of the later period ; 
but in this early Sumerian literature we have not yet 
found any fragment of the story of the creation, or 
indeed of any mythological legend. The shorter ver- 
sion of the creation inscribed upon a Neo-Babylonian 
tablet is, however, written in Sumerian and furnished 
with a Semitic translation ; and, although the scribes of 
that late period, in all probability, frequently attempted 



PROBABLE SOURCE OF THE LEGENDS. ICJ 

to compose in the Sumerian language, that version of 
the Creation story may well have been copied from 
an early original Sumerian document. As the study 
of the Sumerian language progresses and the mass 
of tablets that have been brought to light within the 
last few years are examined and published, we may 
in time find definite proofs of the existence of such 
legends. Meanwhile the evidence available is sufficient 
to show that the legends of the creation current in 
Assyria and Babylonia during the seventh and succeed- 
ing centuries before Christ were based upon archetypes 
the existence of which may date from Sumerian times. 
The actual text of the legends, no doubt, underwent 
many processes of editing ; the division of the great 
poem into sections, each written on a separate tablet, 
may well have been the work of later scribes; but 
the legends themselves were ancient and had their 
origin in the earliest period of Babylonian history. 

We have now described the contents of the great 
Babylonian poem of the creation, we have referred to 
the variant traditions that have come down to us con- 
cerning the several episodes of the story, and we have 
also examined a second version of the creation which 
bears but small resemblance to the great poem. We 
have suggested that the existence of so many variants 
is a proof of the great age of the legends, and it has 
been seen that this evidence is corroborated by the 
traces which the legends have left in Babylonian and 



I08 BABYLONIAN AND HEBREW NARRATIVES. 

Assyrian art, and by certain indirect references to 
them in some early historical inscriptions. The ex- 
tracts given from the tablets will have conveyed better 
than any summary would have done the exact nature 
of their contents, and, as the translations have been 
made as literal as possible, the reader has been able 
to form his own opinion as to the nature of the 
resemblance which may be detected between these 
ancient Babylonian stories and the account of the 
creation in the Book of Genesis. It now remains to con- 
sider what connection there is between the Hebrew and 
the Babylonian accounts of the creation of the world. 

That there must have been a connection between the 
two accounts is generally admitted, for it is only 
necessary to read the tablets to be struck by their 
resemblance to the Biblical narrative in many par- 
ticulars ; the question now to be decided is. In what 
does this connection consist ? Three possible solutions 
of the problem suggest themselves : (1) The Baby- 
lonians may have derived their legends from the 
Hebrews ; (2) both Babylonians and Hebrews, as 
different branches of the same Semitic race, may have 
inherited the legends from a common ancestral stock ; 
and (3) the Hebrews may have derived their legends 
from Babylonia. Of these possible solutions the first 
may be dismissed at once. During whatever period of 
their history the inhabitants of Mesopotamia came in 
contact with the peoples of the Mediterranean coast, 



THE REASON OF THEIR RESEMBLANCE. IO9 

they always came in the character of conquerors, and 
we know from their inscriptions that the Babylonians 
and Assyrians regarded the other nations of Western 
Asia only in the light of payers of tribute. It is in- 
conceivable, therefore, that they should have borrowed 
their sacred traditions from a race they considered 
inferior to themselves ; moreover, the existence of the 
legends in Babylonia has been traced to a very early 
period, before any contact between the Babylonians and 
the Hebrews can have taken place. The second theory 
has far more to recommend it, and has met with warm 
supporters. It has been urged that, coming of the 
same stock, both Babylonians and Hebrews possessed 
the legends of the creation as a common inheritance, 
and that each of these nations modified and developed 
them independently. Against this explanation is to 
be set the distinctly Babylonian character and coloui-- 
ing of the stories, and it is generally regarded as 
impossible for them to have other than a Babylonian 
orit^in. In the account of the Flood given in Genesis, 
which will be referred to in the following chapter, the 
Babylonian origin is still more apparent. We are, 
therefore, reduced to the third solution as being the 
most probable of the three. The legends, we may 
conclude, are Babylonian in origin and character, and 
the resemblances which the account in Genesis bears 
to them must, we think, be put down to Babylonian 
influence. We may then ask. At what time, and by 



no THE HEXATEUCH. 

what means, was this influence exerted which has left 
its traces on the Hebrew story in Genesis ? 

The critical study of the text of Genesis has shown 
that this book, like the rest of the Pentateuch, is not 
from the pen of a single writer, and that it is made 
up of a number of separate works. In the earlier 
periods of Hebrew history these works had not been 
woven into a continuous narrative, and they were not 
in the form in which they are now known to us ; each 
work had a separate existence. The evidence on which 
this conclusion rests consists in part of the numerous 
repetitions which occur throughout the books, and in 
the existence of two separate and sometimes quite 
different narratives of the same event, and in diffi- 
culties in chronology, and the like. A careful study of 
the Hebrew text by scholars throughout the present 
century * has further shown that there are tftree prin- 
cipal works on which the Pentateuch and the Book of 
Joshua are based. These works dealt with the early 
history of the Hebrew race, and, as each of them 
frequently goes over the same ground as the others, it 
is easy to explain the repetitions which the combined 
narrative contains. Each of these books, or histories, 
can be recognized with tolerable certainty by their 
differences in style and treatment, the use of phrases 
peculiar to themselves, the names for God which they 

' Cf. Cheyne, Founders of Old Teeiament Criticism: Biographical, 
Venrri/'Hoe, and Critical Studies (London, 1893). 



ITS COMPOSITE CHARACTER. Ill 

employ, etc. One of these works was used to form 
the groundwork of the " Hexateuch," or first six books 
of the Bible, and it was well adapted for the purpose, 
inasmuch as it presented an orderly system of chro- 
nology. It dealt with the laws and customs of the 
people, and explained their origin ; and from the 
general nature of its contents it is usually termed 
the "Priestly writing," or the "Priests' code." The 
other two books which were incorporated with this 
"Priestly writing," dealt with the legends and early 
history of the Hebrew race ; they are far more primitive 
and picturesque in style than the more formal and 
annalistic narrative with which they are combined. 
The writers of these two narratives are generally dis- 
tinguished by the names " Jehovist " and " Elohist," 
from the fact that in one of them the Divine name 
employed is Jahweh or Jehovah, translated as "the 
Lord " in the Authorized Version ; while in the other 
it is Elohim, which is translated as " God." 

It is needless for our purpose to discuss here the 
relations which these three works bear to one another, 
or to enumerate any additional documents of which 
use was made in the Hexateuch. It "will suffice to 
state that in the early chapters of Genesis, two only, 
of the three writings referred to, have been used 
— the " Priestly writing " ^ and the " Jehovistic 

' The "Priestly writing" also makes use of the word Elohim 
for " God." 



112 THE BIBLICAL VERSIONS OF CREATION. 

narrative."^ Thus the account of the creation in 
Genesis i, 1 — ii. 4 (first half of the verse) is from the 
former writing, and contains a complete account of the 
history of creation in a series of successive acts. The 
story of the garden of Eden, -which follows in chapters 
ii. 4 (second half of the verse) — iii. 24, is taken from 
the "Jehovistio narrative," and it gives another ac- 
count of creation which is not marked by the literary 
precision and balanced structure of the first chapter. 
That account had given a complete description of the 
making of the world ; the second narrative begins at 
the beginning again, going back to a time when there 
were no plants, nor beasts, nor men, and then nar- 
rates their creation. If we compare these accounts 
with the two principal traditions of the creation pre- 
served in Babylonian literature, and which we have 
already described,^ we see that the account in the 
first chapter agrees more closely with the longer 
Babylonian narrative than with the shorter; on the 
other hand the earlier part of the story of the 
garden of Eden, both in its structure and in several 
of its phrases, is not unlike the shorter Babylonian 
version. 

To the greater part of the story of the garden of 
Eden, no parallel has been found in Babylonian 

• An analysis of the first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis 
on these lines is given in Prof. Driver's Introduction to the Literature 
of the Old Testament, (6th ed.), pp. 14 ff. 

« See above, pp. 61 ff., and 88 ff. 



THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 



II 



mythology ; it has, however, been pointed out that 
ill the description of Paradise Babylonian sources have 
been largely drawn upon. The illustration here given 
has been by some supposed to be a Babylonian repre- 
sentation of the story of the temptation of Eve; but 
as no cuneiform text in support of this view has been 
forthcoming, the identification of the female figure 



:r 









IniprPBsion of a cylinder-seal representing a male and a female figure seated near 
a sacred tree; laeliind the woman is a serpent. (Britisll IMuseum, No. 89,326.) 

with Eve must be regarded as somewhat fanciful. 
Writers on Babylonian mythology have sought to find 
in the Babylonian legends the counterparts of Adam 
and Eve, but without success. Kecently Ea-bani, a 
mythical and savage hero of the Gilgamesh legend,'^ 
has been identified with Adam, and the maiden Ukhat, 
by whom he was tempted, with Eve,^ but the grounds 
on which the identifications are made are not con- 
vincing. 

In consequence of the many points of identity 
between the Hebrew and the Babylonian versions of 

' See below, pp. 150 if. 

^ ^ee Juatrow, Amtr. Juxir. Semil. Lang., Vol. XV., No. 4 (July, 1899). 



v,yV: i:el. 



114 JEWS AND BABYLONIANS. 

the creation, some advanced critics hold that the Jews 
heard the Babylonian stories for the first time during 
their exile in Babylon, and that on their return from 
captivity they brought them back with them and 
incorporated them in their sacred writings. Against 
this assumption it has been urged that it is hardly 
likely the captive Jews would have adopted strange 
legends from their conquerors, and raised them to a 
place of honour among their national traditions. But, 
apart from this consideration, such an assumption is 
not necessary in order to explain the resemblances — 
indeed it is hardly admissible, for it takes no account of 
the striking differences and variations which the narra- 
tives present. Moreover, in many passages throughout 
the Old Testament, we find traces of the Babylonian 
dragon-myth, and it is scarcely possible that all such 
references should date from the post-exilic period. 

In several passages we find allusions to a dragon 
or serpent who is thought to inhabit the deep. Thus 
the prophet Amos, describing how none shall escape 
God's hands when He comes in judgment, exclaims, 
"And though they hide themselves in the top of 
" Carmel, I will search and take them out thence ; 
" and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom 
" of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and 
" he shall bite them." ^ This serpent or dragon is 
sometimes referred to as " Leviathan " or " Eahab," 
> Amos ix. 3. 



TRACES OF THE DRAGON-MYTH. II5 

and in several passages allusion is made to a battle 
with the dragon of the deep, in which the dragon 
was pierced or slain. " Awake, awake, put on strength, 
"0 arm of the Lord; awake, as in the days of old, 
"the generations of ancient times. Art thou not it 
" that cut Eahab in pieces, that pierced the dragon ? " ' 
Here the allusion to a battle with a dragon, that took 
place " in days of old," is unmistakable. " Thou didst 
" divide " (Heb. " break up ") " the sea by thy strength : 
" thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. 
"Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, 
" thou gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting 
" the wilderness." ^ In this and in the following 
passage from the Book of Job the connection of the 
dragon with the deep is brought out : ^ " He stirreth 
" up the sea with Ms power, and by his understanding 
" he smiteth through Eahab. By his spirit the heavens 
" are garnished ; his hand has pierced the swift serpent."* 
In the last sentence quoted the parallelism between 
the garnishing of the heavens and the piercing of the 
serpent recalls the Babylonian myth, in which Marduk 
formed the heavens from half of the dragon's body. 
A phrase in an earlier chapter of Job appears to reflect 
another episode of the Babylonian legend ; in the 
course of a description of the power of God in com- 
parison with man's impotence it is stated : " God will 

' Isaiah li. 9. ^ Psalm Ixxiv. 13 f. 

' See also Psalm Ixxxix. 9 f. ' Job xxvi. 12 f. 



Il6 RAHAB AND LEVIATHAN. 

"not withdraw his anger; the helpers of Eahab do 
" stoop under him." ' The " helpers of Eahab," stooping 
beneath their conqueror, call to mind " the gods, her 
" helpers," who went at the side of Tiamat, and shared 
her defeat. 

It is doubtful if the Babylonian form of the name 
Eahab has been found in a synonym employed for 
the dragon on one of the creation fragments,^ but at 
least the conception and description of the monster 
may be regarded as based on the Babylonian myth. 
Egypt is sometimes referred to as Eahab,* but this 
application of the term does not conflict with its 
Babylonian origin. The origin of the kindred monster 
" Behemoth " may, on the other hand, be rightly 
traced to Egypt, for many of the characteristics assigned 
to him in Job xl. 15 ff., are evidently taken from the 
hippopotamus ; while the picture of Leviathan, which 
immediately follows that of Behemoth, offers a distinct 
contrast to it, and would not be inappropriate as a 
description of the monster Tiamat. In the passages 
cited above a dragon-myth is clearly and unmistakably 
referred to. The passages are poetical, and the language 
is to a great extent figurative and symbolical; the 
figures and symbols employed, however, are drawn 
from mythology, and presuppose a knowledge of the 
legend. Traces of the myth may perhaps also be seen 

' Job ix. 13. ^ See Guntel's SchSp/ung und Chaos, pp. 29 and 418. 
' See Psalm Ixxxvii. 4, and Laiali xxx. 7. 



TERIOD OF BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE. I17 

in certain phrases or expressions, as in Gen. xlix. 25, 
where the expression " the deep that coucheth beneath " 
seems to suggest the picture of a beast about to spring. 
But it is very easy to press imagery too far, and to 
see mythological references in pictures suggested to 
the poet by his own observations of nature. If, how- 
ever, we select only those passages in the Old Testament, 
in which the dragon-myth is definitely referred to, 
we have sufficient evidence to show that the myth 
must have been familiar to the Hebrews long before 
the exile. 

It now remains to enquire at what period before the 
exile these legends from Babylon could have reached 
the Hebrews. The question is one that does not admit 
of any certain or definite answer, but it is permissible at 
least to search for any evidence on which a conjectural 
theory may be based. Such evidence is furnished by 
one of the most surprising discoveries of Babylonian 
tablets that has been made during recent years. In 
1887 at Tell el-Amarna, a village in Upper Egypt on 
the east bank of the Nile, the natives unearthed about 
three-hundred-and-twenty clay tablets inscribed in the 
Babylonian character. The ruins near the village mark 
the site of a town that was built by Khu-en-aten, or 
Amenophis IV., who was king of Egypt about B.C. 1500. 
The finding of these Babylonian tablets on Egyptian 
soil was of the greatest historical interest, and has con- 
siderably modified the notions generally held up to the 



Il8 THE TELL EL-AMARNA TABLETS. 

time of their discovery with regard to the early influence 
of Babylonia upon the other nations of the nearer East. 
An examination of the tablets showed that some were 
letters and drafts of letters that passed between the 
kings of Egypt, Amenophis III. and IV., and contem- 
porary kings of countries and districts of Western Asia ; 
others proved to be letters and reports addressed by 
princes and governors of cities in Palestine, Phoenicia, 
and Syria to the King of Egypt. It is not necessary 
for our present purpose to give a detailed description of 
the contents of these documents, and it will suffice to 
point to the evidence which they furnish of the far- 
reaching influence of Babylonian culture during the 
XVth century B.C. That correspondence between kings 
of Assyria, or Babylon, and Egypt should be conducted 
in the Babylonian language is not so very surprising, 
but that governors of Egyptian cities and provinces on 
the Mediterranean coast should make their reports in the 
same tongue shows that a knowledge of Babylonian was 
common throughout Western Asia, and that the Baby- 
lonian language, like French at the present day, was at 
this period the language of diplomacy. It is obvious 
that the Babylonian, literature must have found its way 
among the nations that used its language, and that this 
was the case there is conclusive evidence among the 
Tell el-Amarna tablets themselves. Two of these docu- 
ments, in fact, are not letters or reports, but relate to 
Babylonian legends, one containing a legend concerning 



BABYLON AND WESTERN ASIA. 1 19 

the goddess Ereshkigal, the other inscribed with the 
legend of Adapa.^ It is clear, therefore, that the legends 
of Babylon were known to the Egyptians of this time 
and the inference is justified that the tribes of Syria and 
the Mediterranean coast must have also been acquainted 
with them. We may conclude, therefore, that the Baby- 
lonian legends of creation had penetrated to Canaan 
long before the immigration of the Israelites, and, as 
the Israelites after the conquest of the country had close 
intercourse with its previous inhabitants, it is not im- 
probable that they received from them many of the 
legends and myths, which they in their turn had derived 
from Babylon. 

It has even been suggested that the Hebrews of a 
still earlier time, during the patriarchal period, may 
have acquii-ed the legends by direct contact with Baby- 
lonia. Tradition held that Terah, the ancestor of the 
Israelites, had dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees,^ which 
is now generally identified with the city of Ur in South- 
ern Babylonia, and it is urged that Abraham, Terah's son, 
when migrating from Mesopotamia to Canaan may have 
carried with him the legends of the land of his nativity. 
If this were so, however, we should expect to find more 
frequent references to them among the earlier literature 
of the Hebrews, and it seems to be more probable that 
the acquisition of the legends should be assigned to a 
time subsequent to the conquest of Canaan. At some 

» See below, pp. 18S ff. ' Gen. xi. 28. 



I20 THE JEWS OF THE CAPTIVITY. 

unknown period, then, whether by inheritance from the 
Canaanites or by contact with Babylonia itself, we may 
assume that the Hebrews acquired the Babylonian 
legends which we find incorporated in their national 
traditions. In the absence of any positive information 
one point, at least, is clear, that is to say, the Jews of 
the exile did not come across Babylonian mythology as 
an entirely new and unfamiliar subject, much of which 
they adopted and modified on their return to Jerusalem. 
It is possible that their sojourn in Babylon during the 
captivity may have given an impetus to their study of 
the Babylonian elements in their own traditions, but the 
wide differences which these present to the forms of 
the corresponding legends that have been recovered in 
the cuneiform inscriptions forbid the supposition that 
they were directly borrowed at this period. In the apoc- 
ryphal story of the destruction of the great dragon in 
Babylon by Daniel we doubtless have a late reproduction 
of the Babylonian myth, and the contrast this narrative 
presents to the Biblical stories of creation is singularly 
instructive. From the absence in the latter of all 
grotesque and mythological detail, from the monotheism 
which is strictly in accord with the teaching of the 
prophets before the exile, we may infer that the stories 
had long been familiar in Israel, and that Ezra and the 
Jews of the restoration did not compose these narratives 
but were compilers of earlier traditions of their race. 



( 121 ) 



CHAPTEE IV. 

THE STOEY OF THE DELUGE. 

Is the traditions of many races scattered in various 
parts of the world is to be found a story, under many 
different forms and with many variations, of a great 
flood or deluge which in former times inundated and 
laid waste the land in which they dwelt. The explana- 
tion that such traditions refer to a universal deluge 
which took place in the early ages of the world, is 
now generally regarded as inadmissible, inasmuch as 
there is no trace of such a catastrophe in the earth's 
geological formation. Moreover science has shown 
that in the present physical condition of the world 
such a universal deluge would be impossible. It is 
not necessary on the other hand to refer all these 
scattered legends to the direct influence of the Biblical 
story of the flood. Primitive races, dwelling in low- 
lying and well-watered districts, in their conflict with 
nature meet with no more destructive foe than inunda- 
tion, and amongst such races it would be surprising if 



122 THE BABYLONIAN DELUGE STORY 

we did not find stories of past floods from which but 
few dwellers in the land escaped. It is probable, how- 
ever, that the story of the flood in Genesis is responsible 
for some of the deluge legends, though it is now certain 
that the Biblical story itself is not original, but was 
derived from a similar legend of the Babylonians. 

From the extracts that have been preserved of the 
history of Berosus ^ we obtain a brief summary of the 
Babylonian version of the deluge. According to this 
account, ten Babylonian kings reigned before the 
deluge, which occurred in the reign of a king named 
Xisuthros. To this king the god Chronos appeared in 
a vision and warned him that a flood would take place 
which would destroy mankind. The god therefore bade 
him write a history of the world from the beginning, 
and place it in Sippar, the city of the sun ; he was 
then to build a ship into which he might bring his 
friends and relations, and every kind of bird and beast. 
Xisuthros did as the god told him, and the flood came 
upon the earth. After the flood had begun to abate, 
Xisuthros sent out birds from the vessel to 'see if the 
waters had fallen, but as they found no resting-place 
they returned. After some days he again sent them 
out, and this time they came back with mud upon their 
feet. The third time he sent them out they did not 
return. He therefore came forth from the vessel, with 
his wife, his daughter, and the pilot, and upon the side 
' See Eusebiiis, Chron. I., ed. Schoene, col. 20 ff. 



ACCORDING TO BEROSUS. 1 23 

of the mountain upon which the ship was stranded he 
offered a sacrifice, and immediately he and his three 
companions were taken up into heaven. Those who 
had remained in the ship then came forth, and as they 
could not find Xisuthros they lamented and called on 
him by name. He did not appear to them, however, 
though they heard his voice telling them that he and 
his companions were now living with the gods. 
Xisuthros further informed them that the land they 
were in was called Armenia, and he told them to return 
to Babylonia and to search for and recover the writings 
hidden at Sippar. Those that were left carried out 
his instructions, and found the writings and built 
cities ; and thus Babylon was again inhabited. 

This legend preserved from the history of Berosus 
was long supposed to have taken its colouring from the 
account in Genesis, but it is now admitted that Berosus 
derived the story from Babylonian sources. On the 
tablets from Ashur-bani-pal's library a very complete 
form of the legend has been recovered. These tablets 
date from the seventh century B.C., and the story told 
on them appears as part of a great poem concerning an 
ancient hero named Gilgamesh. The poem was divided 
into twelve sections, each of which was written upon a 
separate tablet ; these are described in detail in the 
following chapter. It must here suffice to point out 
that many of the stories comprised in the poem have 
no organic connection with the original legend of the 



124 TSiT-NAPISHTIM'S STORY. 

hero. Gilgamesh was the most prominent heroic figure 
in Babylonian mythology, and, as with many heroes of 
the past, his name has formed a centre around which 
stories and legends of quite distinct origin have 
gathered in the course of time. One such legend is the 
story of the deluge which occurs on the Eleventh 
Tablet of the series. The story, of which we give a 
translation, loses nothing by being taken from its 
context. It there forms a complete tale related to 
Gilgamesh by Tsit-napishtim, who together with his 
family was saved from the deluge. That the legend 
had originally no connection with the story of Gilga- 
mesh is sufficiently clear from the artificial manner of 
its introduction, but, if further proof were needed, it 
has recently been supplied by the discovery of a broken 
Babylonian tablet, which contains a version of the 
story as it was told at an early period of Babylonian 
history. 

The tablet is dated in the reign of Ammizaduga, one 
of the last kings of the First Dynasty of Babylon, and 
may therefore be roughly ascribed to about B.C. 2100. 
It was found during the excavations that were recently 
undertaken by the Turkish Government at Abu- 
Habbah, the site of the ancient city of Sippar, and no 
doubt it represents the local form of the legend that 
was current in that city during this early period. The 
tablet is unfortunately very badly preserved, but from 
what remains of it, it is quite certain that it has been 



AN OLD BABYLONIAN VERSION. 12$ 

inscribed with a variant account of the story of the 
deluge. Even at this time the story was not a short 
one, for the text is written in eight columns, four on 
each side of the tablet. In the second column of the 
tablet a god appears to be giving directions for sending 
destruction upon men, while in the seventh column, 
towards the end of the tablet, the god Ea remonstrates 
with this deity for sending the deluge and destroying 
mankind; in the last line but one of the text, more- 
over, the name Atrakhasis occurs.-' So little has been 
preserved of the tablet, however, that its chief interest 
is derived from the note, or colophon, with which it 
concludes. From this we learn two very important 
facts : (1) the name of the composition of which the 
tablet forms a part, and (2) the date at which the tablet 
was written. With regard to the first of these points 
we find that the story is not described as the Eleventh 
Tablet of the poem of Gilgamesh, but as the Second 
Tablet of quite a different composition. We have thus 
direct evidence that it was inserted into the former 
poem at a comparatively late period of its literary 
development. Of still greater interest is the date of 
the writing of the tablet, for it proves conclusively that 
an early date must be assigned to the legends which 
are known to us from tablets written in the seventh 
century for the library of Ashur-bani-pal. In this 
fragmentary version of the deluge story, found upon a, 

■* See Scheil, Becueil de Travaux, Vol. XX. (1S98), pp. 55 ff. 



126 THE NARRATIVE OF BEROSUS COMPARED. 

tablet which was written more than 1300 years before 
Ashur-bani-pal's time, the internal evidence furnished 
by the late Assyrian tablets is amply corroborated. 

Returning to the account of the deluge preserved in 
the Gilgamesh poem, we there iind a form of the legend 
which in general resembles the story reproduced from 
Berosus. We there read that the gods in the city of 
Shurippak decided to send a deluge upon the earth. In 
a dream the god Ea revealed their intention to a man 
of the city named Tsit-napishtim who, in accordance 
with Ea's instructions, saved himself, and his family, 
and every kind of beast, by building a ship in which 
they escaped from the flood. The thread of the narra- 
tive is identical with that of Berosus, though it differs 
from it in details. The hero of the story, for instance, 
dwells in Shurippak, not in Sippar, and the god does 
not bid him write a history of the world to instruct 
posterity after the deluge has destroyed all other 
records. The warning of Xisuthros by Chronos, how- 
ever, corresponds to that of Tsit-napishtim by Ea, and 
the name Xisuthros finds its equivalent in Atrakhasis, 
or Khasisatra, a name by which Tsit-napishtim is 
referred to in the speech of Ea at the end of the story. 
Both heroes, moreover, are deified after coming forth 
from the ship. With regard to the name Tsit-napishtim, 
it must be mentioned that the reading of the first part 
of the name is still a matter of conjecture, and that 
some scholars render it Par-napishtim ; whichever be 



TSlT-NAPISHTIM AND ATRAKHASIS. 127 

correct the meaning of the name appears to be " the 
" offspring of life." It has already been stated that Ea 
refers to Tsit-napishtim by the name Atrakhasis, which 
means " abounding in wisdom " ; and a theory has 
recently been put forward to account for the occurrence 
of these two names for the hero of the legend. Accord- 
ing to it ^ the story of the deluge in the Gilgamesh epic 
is made up of two legends which have been interwoven. 
One was a nature myth describing a universal deluge, 
and the other a local legend referring to the destruction 
of a single city. Atrakhasis is the hero of the nature 
myth, and Tsit-napishtim, " the man of Shurippak," is 
the hero of the local legend ; while both names are given 
to the hero in the story, as told in the poem of Gilga- 
mesh. The theory is ingenious, but it lacks evidence. 

Before proceeding to compare the Babylonian story 
of the ilood with that preserved in Genesis, we give 
a translation of the former version, so far as the present 
state of preservation of the text will allow.^ The whole 
story is put into the mouth of Tsit-napishtim, who tells 
it to Gilgamesh, without interruption, from beginning 
to end. He begins by describing how the gods in 
council, in the city of Shurippak, decided to send a 
deluge upon the earth, and how Ea revealed the secret 

' See Jastrow, ZeiUehrift fiir Assyriologle, Bd. XIII. (1899), pp. 

288 ff. 

^ Of Jerraeias, Izdubar-Nimrod, pp. 32 ff. ; Jensen, Die Eosmologie 
iter Babyionier, pp. 367 ff. ; and Zimmern iu Gunkel's SchSpfung unci 
Chaos, pp. 423 ti. 



128 THE GODS AND THE DELUGE. 

to Tsit-napishtim, one of the dwellers in the town. 
The opening lines of Ea's address to Tsit-napishtim, 
which begins, " reed-hut, reed-hut ! O wall, wall ! 
" reed-hut, hear ! wall, understand ! " has proved 
a rather puzzling passage to commentators, for it is not 
quite obvious why Ea should address a dwelling in this 
manner when he gives his warning to Tsit-napishtim. 
The best explanation of the passage seems to be that 
Ea, before speaking to Tsit-napishtim, first addresses 
the hut in which he is sleeping. We know from the 
end of the story that Ea levealed the secret to Tsit- 
napishtim in a vision, and in view of the passage in 
Ea's speech, it is not unnatural to suppose that Tsit- 
napishtim was sleeping at the time in a hut built of 
reeds, a common form of dwelling among the poorer 
inhabitants of Babylonia. 

Tsit-napishtim begins his story thus : — 

"I will reveal to thee, O Gilgamesh, the hidden 

word, 
" And the decision of the gods will I declare to thee. 
" Shurippak, a city which thou knowest, 
" Which lieth on the bank of the Euphrates, 
" That city was old ; and the gods within it, 
" Their hearts prompted the great gods to send a 

deluge.^ 
" There was their father Anu, 
" And their counsellor the warrior Bel, 

* I.e., npon the city and uiankind. 



EAS WARNING TO TSIT-NAPISHTIM. I29 

" And their messenger Ninib, 

" And their governor Ennugi. 

" The lord of wisdom, Ea, sat also with them, 

" And he repeated their purpose to the hut of reeds, 

(saying) : 
" ' reed-hut, reed-hut ! wall, wall ! 
" reed-hut, hear ! wall, understand ! 
" Thou man of Shurippak,^ son of Ubara-Tutu, 
" Pull down thy house, build a ship, 
" Forsake thy possessions, take heed for thy life ! 
" Abandon thy goods, save thy life, 
"And bring up living seed of every kind into the 

ship. 
" As for the ship, which thou shalt build, 
" Well planned must be its dimensions, 
" Its breadth and its length shall bear proportion 

each to each, 
" And thou shalt launch it in the ocean ! ' 
" I took heed, and spake unto Ea, my lord, (saying) : 
" ' [The command], my lord, which thou hast given, 
" I will honour, and will fulfil. 
" But how shall I make answer unto the city, the 

people and the elders thereof ? ' 
" Ea opened his mouth and spake, 
"And he said unto me, his servant, 
" ' Thus shalt thou answer and say unto them : 
" Bel hath cast me forth, for he hateth me, 

• I.e., Tsit-napislatim. 
BAB. EEL. K 



130 ea's instructions. 

" And I can no longer live in your city ; 

" Nor on Bel's earth can I any longer lay my head. 

" I will therefore go down to the deep and dwell with 
my lord Ea.' " 

The next few lines, which contain the end of the 
answer which Tsit-napishtim is to give to the people, 
are broken, and their meaning is not quite plain. 
The general drift of the passage seems to be that 
his departure will bring blessings on the land he 
is leaving, for Bel will shower down upon it multi- 
tudes of birds and fish, and will grant a plenteous 
harvest. They will know when to expect their pros- 
perity, for Shamash has set an appointed time, when 
the lord of darkness, the god Eamman, will pour down 
upon them an abundant rain. According to this 
interpretation Tsit-napishtim is ordered to allay any 
misgivings that his fellow citizens may feel by 
assuring them beforehand that the signs of the deluge 
are marks of coming prosperity, and not of destruction. 
Some explain the passage by assuming that Tsit- 
napishtim is to make no secret of the coming deluge, 
but to foretell its advent and the destruction of all 
living things including birds and fish. The former 
rendering seems to agree better with the earlier part 
of his answer ; otherwise Ea would have told him to say 
tliat Bel hated, not himself only, but mankind at large. 

Quite a different version of Ea's instructions to Tsit- 
napishtim and of his answer to the god is given 



THE BUILDING OF THE SHIP. 131 

oa another tablet, of which only a fragment has 
been recovered. According to this version Ea told 
him to watch for the appointed time and then to 
enter the ship, wherein he was to bring his corn, and 
his property, and his possessions, and his family, and 
his household and handicraftsmen, together with certain 
cattle and beasts of the field. In his answer to the 
god Tsit-napishtim does not ask how he is to explain 
his action to his fellow citizens, and only seems to 
be troubled by the practical difficulties of his task. 
He complains that he has never yet built a ship, and 




A Eab3'!onian Bhip. (From a cylinder-seal in the British Maeeum, No. F(9, 3-19.) 

therefore asks the god to trace out a plan of the 
vessel upon the ground. At this point the version 
breaks off. 

After receiving Ea's commands Tsit-napishtim col- 
lected the wood and the materials necessary for the 
construction of the ship for four whole days, and 
on the fifth day he laid it down. He made the hull 
in the form of a flat-bottomed barge, 120 cubits in 
width. Upon the hull he constructed a sort of house 
or cabin, 120 cubits in height. This great deck-house 



132 THE EMBARKATION. 

he divided into six stories, and each story contained 
nine rooms. The outside of tlie ship he rendered 
watertight by pouring six measures of bitumen over 
it, and the inside he smeared with pitch. He then 
caused oil to be brought and he slaughtered oxen; 
and, after filling jars with sesame-wine, and oil, and 
grape-wine, he held a feast " like that of New Year's 
" Day." On the seventh day the ship was ready, and 
Tsit-napishtim then hastened to carry out Ea's instruc- 
tions, and to fill it with all that he possessed. The 
narrative continues : — 

"With all that I had I filled it. 

"With all the silver I had, I filled it, 

" With all the gold I had, I filled it, 

" With all living seed of every kind that I possessed, 
I filled it. 

"I brought up into the ship all my family and 
household, 

" The cattle of the field, and the beasts of the field, 
the handicraftsmen — all of them I brought in. 

" A fixed time Shamash had appointed, (saying) : 

" ' The lord of darkness will at eventide send a heavy 
rain; 

" Then go into the ship, and shut thy door.' 

" The appointed season arrived, and 

" The ruler of the darkness sent at eventide a heavy 
rain. 

" Of the storm I saw the beginning; 



THE COiMING OF THE FLOOD. 1 33 

" To look upon the storm I was afraid ; 

" I entered into the ship and shut the door. 

" To the pilot of the ship, to Puzur-Bel the sailor, 

"I committed the great building,^ and the contents 

thereof. 
" When the early dawn appeared, 
" There came up from the horizon a black cloud. 
" Eamman in the midst thereof thundered, 
" And Nabu and Marduk went before, 
"They passed like messengers over mountain and 

country. 
" Uragal parted the anchor-cable. 
" There went Ninib, and he made the storm to 

burst. 
" The Anunnaki carried flaming torches, 
"And with the brightness thereof they lit up the 

earth. 
"The whirlwind of Eamman mounted up into the 

heavens, and 
" All light was turned into darkness." 
The tempest raged for a whole day. The waters 
rose, and all was confusion; men by reason of the 
darkness could see nothing, and they perished miserably. 
The text continues : — 

" No man beheld his fellow, 

" No longer could men know each other. In 
heaven 

' I.e., the sliip. 



134 ISHTARS LAMENTATION. 

" The gods were afraid of the deluge, 

" They retreated, they went up into the heaven of Anu. 

" The gods crouched down like hounds, 

" In the enclosure (of heaven) they sat cowering. 

" Then Ishtar cried aloud like a woman in travail, 

" The Lady of the gods lamented with a loud voice, 

(saying) : 
" ' The old race of man hath been turned back into 

clay, 
" Because I assented to an evil thing in the council 

of the gods ! 
" Alas ! I have assented to an evil thing in the 

council of the gods, 
" And agreed to a storm which hath destroyed my 

people ! 
" That which I brought forth — where is it ? 
" Like the spawn of flsh it fiUeth the sea ! ' 
" The gods of the Anunnaki wept with her, 
" The gods were bowed down, they sat down weeping, 
" Their lips were pressed together . . » 
" For six days and six nights 
"The wind blew, and the deluge and the tempest 

overwhelmed the land. 
" When the seventh day drew nigh, then ceased the 

tempest and the deluge, and the storm, 
" Which had fought like a host. 
" Then the sea became quiet and it went down ; and 

the hurricane and the deluge ceased. 



THE STRANDING OF THE SHIP. 135 

" I looked upon the sea and cried aloud, 

" For all mankind was turned back into clay. 

" In place of the fields a swamp lay before me. 

" I opened the window and the light fell upon my 

cheek ; 
"I bowed myself down, I sat down, I"wept; 
" Over my cheek flowed my tears. 
" I looked upon the world, and behold all was sea. 
" After twelve (days ?) the land appeared, 
" To the land Nitsir the ship took its course. 
" The mountain of the land of Nitsir held the ship 

fast and did not let it slip. 
" The first day, the second day, the mountain Nitsir 

held the ship fast. 
" The third day, the fourth day, the mountain Nitsir 

held the ship fast. 
"The fifth day, the sixth day, the mountain Nitsir 

held the ship fast. 
"When the seventh day drew nigh, I sent out a 

dove, and let her go forth. 
" The dove flew hither and thither, 
" But there was no resting-place (for her) and she 

returned. 
" Then I sent out a swallow, and let her go forth. 
" The swallow flew hither and thither, 
"But there was no resting-place (for her) and she 

returned. 
" Then I sent out a raven and let her go forth. 



J 36 THE SACRIFICE. 

" The raven flew away and beheld the abatement of 

the waters, 
" And she came near, wading and croaking, but did 

not return. 
"Then I brought (all) out unto the four winds, I 

offered an offering, 
^' I made a libation on the peak of the mountain. 
" By sevens I set out the vessels, 
" Under them I heaped up reed, and cedar-wood, and 

incense. 
•" The gods smelt the savour, 
" The gods smelt the sweet savour, 
" The gods gathered like flies about him that oflfered 

up the sacrifice. 
" Then the Lady of the gods drew nigh, 
" And she lifted up the great jewels, which Anu had 

made according to her wish, (and said) : 
■"'What gods these are! By the jewels of lapis 

lazuli which are upon my neck, I will not 

forget ! 
" These days I have set in my memory, never wiU I 

forget them ! 
" Let the gods come to the offering, 
" But Bel shall not come to the offering, 
" Since he refused to ask counsel and sent the deluge, 
" And handed over my people unto destruction.' 
"Kow when Bel drew nigh, 
" He saw the ship, and he was very wroth ; 



EAS PROTEST. 1 37 

" He was filled with anger against the gods, the Igigi, 

(saying) : 
" ' Who then hath escaped with his life ? 
" No man shall live after the destruction ! ' 
" Then Ninib opened his mouth and spake, 
" And said to the warrior Bel, 
" ' Who but Ea could have done this thing ? 
" For Ea knoweth every matter ! ' 
" Then Ea opened his mouth and spake, 
" And said to the warrior Bel, 
" ' Thou art the governor of the gods, warrior, 
" But thou wouldst not take counsel and thou hast 

sent the deluge ! 
" On the sinner visit his sin, and 
" On the transgressor visit his transgression ; 
" But hold thy hand, that all be not destroyed ! 
" And forbear (?), that all be not [confounded] ! 
" Instead of sending a deluge, 
*' Let a lion come and minish mankind ! 
" Instead of sending a deluge, 
" Let a leopard come and minish mankind ! 
" Instead of sending a deluge, 
" Let a famine come and [waste] the land ! 
" Instead of sending a deluge, 
" Let the Plague-god come and [slay] mankind ! 
" I did not reveal the purpose of the great gods. 
" I caused Atrakhasis to see a dream, and (thus) he 

heard the purpose of the gods.' 



138 DEIFICATION OF TSIT-NAPISHTIM. 

" Thereupon Bel arrived at a decision, 

" And he went up into the ship. 

" He took my hand and brought me forth, 

" He brought my wife forth, he made her to kneel 

at my side, 
"He turned towards us, he stood between us, he 

blessed us, (saying) : 
" ' Hitherto hath Tsit-napislitim been of mankind, 
" But now let Tsit-napishtim be like unto the gods, 

even us, 
" And let Tsit-napishtim dwell afar off at the mouth 

of the river ! ' 
" Then they took me, and afar off, at the mouth of 

the rivers, they made me to dwell." 
The reader will now have gained a notion of the 
form of the deluge story current in Assyria during 
the seventh century B.C., but, before comparing it with 
the Biblical account, it will be necessary to consider the 
following facts. The Biblical story is contained in 
Gen. vi. 9 — ix. 17, and, like the stories of the creation 
given in the first and second chapters of that book, 
is taken from two separate writings — the "Priestly 
"writing" and the "Jehovist narrative," brief de- 
scriptions of which have already been given.^ In the 
case of the accounts of the creation we have seen that 
the two stories were not interwoven one with the other, 
and that one was first given and then the other. In 
' See above, pp. 110 f. 



THE BIBLICAL STORY OF THE FLOOD. 1 39 

the case of the deluge on the other hand, the two 
accounts are not given separately, but have been 
united so as to form a single narrative. The compiler, 
however, has made very little alteration in his two 
sources of information, and has scrupulously preserved 
the texts upon which he has drawn. Even where the 
two versions differ from each other in points of detail 
he has not attempted to harmonize them, but without 
change has given each as he found it ; thanks to this 
fact it is possible to disentangle the two accounts with 
absolute certainty. 

As the text reads at present we find considerable 
differences in certain passages with regard to two 
important details of the story, viz., the length of the 
duration of the deluge, and the number of the animals 
which were preserved. According to Gen. vii. 10, the 
flood took ^lace seven days after Noah was told to 
build the ark ; in Gen. vii. 12 and viii. 6, the waters 
are "sSid to have prevailed for forty days ; and accord- 
ing to Gen. viii. 6-12, the waters subsided after three 
periods of seven days each. These passages give the 
total duration of the deluge, including the seven days 
of preparation, as sixty-eight days. On the other 
hand, in Gen. vii. 11, the flood is said to have begun 
"in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the 
" second month, on the seventeenth day of the month " ; 
in Gen. vii. 24, it is stated that " the waters prevailed 
" upon the earth an hundred and fifty days " ; and 



140 TWO VERSIONS IN GENESIS. 

according to Gen. viii. 13 and 14, the waters finally 
disappeared, and the earth became dry in the "six 
"hundred and first year" of Noah, "in the second 
"month, on the seven and twentieth day of the 
"month." Thus, according to these passages, the 
total duration of the deluge was more than a year 
— a statement that is not compatible with the pre- 
viously cited passages which give the length of its 
duration as sixty-eight days. The second most striking 
instance of divergence occurs in the numbers of the 
animals to be preserved in the ark; according to 
Gen. vi 19, Noah is told to preserve two of every sort, 
while in Gen. vii. 2, Noah is to preserve seven of every 
clean, beast, and two of every beast that is not clean. 
These are perhaps the two most striking instances of 
divergence in the narrative, for they cannot be recon- 
ciled except on the supposition that they are the 
accounts of two different writers which have been 
interwoven with each other. 

Other evidence, such as the occurrence of double 
accounts of the same episode, each written in a style 
of its own, points in the same direction; and it is 
possible on the basis of such evidence to separate 
the two threads of the narrative. These two threads 
are so distinct that any one may trace them for him- 
self in the Authorized Version of the English Bible. 
This will be apparent if we mark with a line at the 
side of the column the following passages of the 



SEPARATION OF THE NARRATIVES. 141 

narrative: Gen. vi. 9-22; vii. 6, 11, 13-16 (down to 
" as God commanded him ") ; vii. 18-21 and 24 ; viii. 1 
and 2 (down to " were stopped ") ; viii. 3 (from, 
"and after the end") -5; viii. 13 (down to "from 
off the earth"); viii. 14-19; and ix. 1-17. When 
this has been done and these passages read consecu- 
tively, it will be seen that we have a perfectly complete 
and consistent account of the deluge. If the passao-es 
which have been left unmarked are next read, it will 
be seen that, although one fragment of a verse has been 
transposed (chapter vii., the second half of verse 16), 
we have here another complete and Consistent account 
of the deluge.^ 

' Tliis will be apparent from the following summaries; we will 
summarize tlie marked passages first, which together contain the 
account of the deluge according to the " Priestly writing " : — Because 
the earth -was corrupt God decided to send a deluge. He therefore 
warned Noah to build an ark, giving him precise directions with 
regard to its size and to the mode of its construction ; when it was 
finished he was told to bring his own family into the ark, and two of 
every kind of living creature, male and female, as well as food for 
himself and for them; Noah did as he was commandeJ (vi. 9-22). 
Noah was six hundred years old when the flood began (vii. 6) ; in the 
six hundredth year of his life the flood was caused by tlie breaking up 
of the fountains of the great deep and by the opening of the windows 
of heaven (vii. 11). On the self-same day Noah and his family entered 
the ark, and he brought in the animals ia pairs (vii. 13-16). And the 
waters increased and covered the high mountains, and the depth of 
the flood was fifteen cubits, and every living creature perished (vii. 
18-21). And the waters prevailed for an hundred and fifty days, 
when God sent a wind to assuage the waters ; and the fountains of 
the deep and the windows of heaven were slopped (vii. 24-viii. 2). 
After the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased and 
in the seventh month the ark rested upon the mcJuntains of Ararat. 
And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month, when 



142 SUMMARY OF THE ACCOUNTS. 

The reader will see that each account repeats phrases 
characteristic to itself, and each, when separated from 
the other, contains a consistent and un contradictory 

the tops of the mountains were seen (yiii. 3-5). And on the first day 
of the six hundred and first year the waters were dried up from the 
earth (viii. 13), and by the seven and twentieth day of the second 
month the earth was quite dry (viii. 14). And Noah came forth from 
the ark (viii. 15-19), and God blessed Noah and his sons, and He maoe 
a covenant that He would not again send a flood to destroy the earth, 
and as a token of the covenant He set His rainbow in the clouds (ix. 
1-17). Such is the story, complete and consistent with itself, which 
is given by tlie marked passages. 

The unmarked passages represent the " Jehovistio narrative." In 
the marked passages the reader will have noticed that the Divine 
name used is " God," which corresponds to the Hebrew word " Elo- 
"him"; in the unmarked passages he will notice that the word 
generally used is " the Lord," representing the Hebrew word 
" Jahveh " or Jehovah. The " Jehovislic narrative " is not quite 
a complete account, for its beginning, whioli contained the command 
to build the ark, is omitted, doubtless because the " Priestly writing " 
gives so full an account of it. From what remains of the " Jehovistio 
" narrative " we gain the following picture of the flood : — Since Noah 
had been righteous in his generation, the Lord bade him and all his 
house go up into the ark. Noah was also told to bring into the ark 
with him seven of every kind of clean beast and two of every unclean 
beast, the greater number of clean beasts no doubt being taken to 
serve as food during the time Noah and his houseliold sliould be shut 
up in the ark. Noah was warned that iu seven days' time the Lord 
would cause it to rain upon the earth for forty days and forty nights, 
and every living thing the Lord had made would be destroyed (vii. 
1-5). Noah therefore did as he was commanded ; he took the clean 
and unclean beasts into the ark with him (vii. 7-9) and the Lord shut 
hiin in (vii. 16). As had been foretold, after seven days the flood 
came upon the earth (vii. 10), and the rain was upon the earth forty 
days and forty nights (vii. 1 2). And the flood was forty days upon 
the earth, and the waters increased and bore up the ark (vii. 17) ; and 
every living thing was destroyed, except Noah and they that were 
with him in the ark (vii. 22 and 23). Then the rain from heaven was 
restrained and tUe waters returned from off the earth continually 
(viii. 2 and 3), and at the end of foity days Noah opened the window 



POINTS OF CONTRAST. 143 

narrative of the event. The "Priestly writing," in 
accordance with its annalistic character, gives exact 
details concerning the size and structure of the ark, 
records the depth of the flood in cubits, gives precise 
dates, by day and month and year, as to when the 
flood began, when the ark rested upon Ararat, when 
the tops of the mountains were seen, when the waters 
were dried up, and also when the earth was quite dry. 
Episodes peculiar to it are the breaking up of the 
fountains of the deep as a cause of the flood, the 
resting of the ark on the mountains of Ararat, and 
the making of the covenant with the rainbow as its 
token. The " Jehovistic narrative " is far more pictu- 
resque ; the Lord shuts Noah into the ark. He smells 
the sweet savour of Noah's sacrifice, and He says in 
His heart He will not again send a deluge. The 
episodes peculiar to this account are the distinction 
made between clean and unclean animals, the bringing 

of the ark and sent forth a raven, which flew to and fro and did not 
return ; then a dove, which, finding no rest for the sole of her foot, 
returned to him. He waited another seven days and again he sent 
forth the dove, which this time brought in her mouth an olive leaf 
plucked off; so Noah knew the waters were abated. He waited yet 
another seven days and then again sent forth the dove, which this 
time did not return (viii. 6-12). So Noah removed the covering of tbo 
ark and beheld that the face of the ground was dried (viii. 13). And 
Noah built an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast and 
of every clean fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the 
Lord smelled the sweet savour, and said in His heart He would not 
again curse the ground nor smite every living thing ; while the earth 
remained, the natural order of the universe should not be changed 
(viii. 20-22). 



144 COMPARISON WITH THE BABYLONIAN POEM. 

on of the deluge by a heavy rain only and not hy 
the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, 
the sending forth of the raven and the dove, the 
building of the altar and the sacrifice to Jehovah. 
The chief points of divergence between the two 
narratives, that is to say, the statements as to the 
length of the flood's duration, have been referred 
to already. 

When we compare the Babylonian account of the 
deluge with these two versions in the book of Genesis, 
we see that it contains many of the peculiarities of 
both. The details with regard to the form and struc- 
ture of the ship are very similar to those of the ark 
in the "Priestly writing," both accounts stating that 
the vessel was built in stories, and that pitch was 
used for making it watertight ; in both narratives the 
ark is said to have rested upon a mountain ; and Ea's 
protest against the sending of a deluge in the future 
is perhaps the equivalent of God's covenant with Noah 
that mankind should not again be so destroyed. On 
the other hand, many of the features peculiar to the 
"Jehovistic narrative" also appear in the Babylonian 
version. Such are the seven days which elapsed 
between the warning and the coming of the deluge, 
the cause of the deluge ascribed to heavy rain, the 
sending forth of birds to test the condition of the 
waters, the burning of a sacrifice from which a sweet 
savour rose, etc. 



ORIGIN OF THE HEBREW VERSIONS. 145 

We have therefore in Genesis beyond doubt two 
independent versions of the deluge story, both originally 
derived from Babylonian sources, but neither directly 
copied from the Babylonian version as we know it on 
the tablets from Ashur-bani-pal's library. In the case 
of the legends of the creation we have already noted 
indications that they were derived from Babylon at 
some period prior to the exile, and the arguments there 
brought forward apply with equal force to the story 
of the deluge. It is a striking fact, however, that the 
latter narrative has not left so strong a mark upon 
the earlier Hebrew writings as did the Babylonian 
dragon-myth. In the second half of the book of 
Isaiah the wrath of Jehovah in sending the Jews into 
captivity is compared to "the waters of Noah,"^ and 
in Ezekiel^ also there is an interesting reference to 
Noah, which presupposes a knowledge of the Biblical 
story of the flood ; but traces of the story in the other 
books of the Old Testament are not very numerous. 
Moreover the resemblance between the Hebrew and 
the Babylonian versions of the deluge is very much 
closer than that between the corresponding accounts 
of the creation. These facts indicate a later -date for 
the adoption of the deluge story by the Hebrews, but 
a date which may have been centuries before the 
taking of Jerusalem. 

• Isaiali liv. 9. ' Ezckicl xiv. 12-20. 

BAB. EEL. L 



( 146 ) 



CHAPTEE V. 

TALES OF GODS AND HEROES. 

In the two preceding chapters we have descrihed the 
legends of the Babylonians which have left their mark 
upon Hebrew literature. Of such legends those which 
dealt with the creation of the world formed in them- 
selves a complete body of traditions, and these we 
have treated as such in Chapter III. The story of the 
deluge, on the other hand, which formed the subject of 
Chapter IV., has not come down to us as a separate 
legend, but occurs in the course of a long poem which 
describes the adventures of a great Babylonian hero 
named Gilgamesh. As the account of the deluge there 
narrated forms a complete story, we took it from its 
context, in order to treat it in connection with the 
legends 'of creation. We will now describe the re- 
maining portions of this great poem of the Babylonians, 
which deals with the exploits of Gilgamesh, the greatest 
mythical hero of their race. 

The name of the hero was, for many years, read 
" Izdubar," or " Gishdubar," but we now know that the 



THE POEM OF GILGAMESH. I47 

Babylonians pronounced the ideogram which formed 
the name, " Gilgamesh." ^ It has been suggested that 
Gilgamesh is to be identified with the hero Nimrod, 
who was "a mighty hunter before the Lord," and 
tlie beginning of whose kingdom was "Babel, and 
" Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of 
" Shinar " ; ^ but, beyond the fact that both Nimrod 
and Gilgamesh were great Babylonian heroes of 
antiquity, there are no other grounds for assuming 
their identity. Of Nimrod we know little besides 
what is told us in the passage in Genesis re- 
ferred to, but the deeds of Gilgamesh are recounted 
in the longest Babylonian poem that has come down 
to us. It is written upon a series of twelve tablets, 
which, like those of the Creation series, are distin- 
guished by numbers. The late Sir Henry 0. Eaw- 
linson made the suggestion that the poem was a solar 
myth, the twelve tablets corresponding to the twelve 
months of the year, but the contents of the majority 
of the tablets do not fit in with this view of their 
origin. In fact, it is probable that the division of the 
poem into twelve sections was a comparatively late 
arrangement, the work of the scribes who collected 
and edited the ancient legends. We know that stories 
and legends of the hero Gilgamesh go back into 

' ^lian mentions an ancient king Gilgamos, a name he evidently 
took from the hero of tliis poem. 
2 Gen. X. 8-10. 



148 INTRODUCTION TO THE POEM. 

remote anticLuity, for cyliuder-seals, made during the 
Sumerian period,^ have been found, on which are 
engraved the deeds of valour performed by him. The 
actual poem, however, in which we read these stories, 
like most of the other legends of the Babylonians, 
is known to us from Assyrian tablets which were 
written in the seventh century before Christ. Several 
copies of the work were made for Ashur-bani-pal's 
library, and, from the numerous fragments of them 
that are in the British Museum, it is possible to piece 
together the story, and to give several of the episodes 
of the narrative in detail.^ The story clings to the 
ancient city of Erech, the chief seat of the worship 
of the goddess Ishtar, and, although in the course 
of his adventures, Gilgamesh travelled into distant 
lands, he always returned to the city of ErecL 

The First Tablet of the series, is much broken. A 
fragment has been found which not improbably con- 
tained the opening words of the poem, for it seems to 
describe the benefits that will accrue to a man who 
will study the poem and make himself acquainted 
with the hero's history. After these prefatory remarks, 
the text introduces the name of Erech, and describes 
the misfortunes that have fallen upon this ancient 
city in consequence of a siege that has taken place. 
All living things that are in the city, gods, and men, 

• I.e., from about B.C. 4000 to B.C. 2300. 

' Cf. Jeremias, Izdubar-Nimroi, Leipzig, 1891. 



THE SIEGE OF ERECH. 149 

and beasts, are confused and terrified ; l.he text reads 
as follows : — 

" She asses [tread down] their young, 

" Cows [turn upon] their calves. 

" Men cry aloud like beasts, 

" And maidens mourn like doves. 

" The gods of strong-walled Erech 

" Are changed to flies, and buzz about the streets. 

" The spirits of strong-walled Erech 

" Are changed to serpents, and glide into holes (?). 

" For three years the enemy besieged Erech, 

"And the doors were barred, and the bolts were 
shot, 

"And Ishtar did not raise her head against the foe." 

We have no mention of Gilgameshupon these frag- 
ments of the First Tablet, but, as on the Second Tablet 
we find the inhabitants of Erech groaning under his 
rule, it is not improbable that the foe mentioned as 
besieging Erech was led by Gilgamesh, and that they 
succeeded in capturing the city. Another view is that 
Gilgamesh came forward and delivered Erech from her 
enemies, and in return for his services was elected 
ruler of the city. By whichever of these means he 
obtained his throne in Erech, there is no doubt that 
his rule soon became unpopular, for he forced all the 
young men of the city into his service and carried 
off the maidens to his court. The elders complained, 
saying :— 



ISO THE TYRANNY OF GILGAMESII. 

" Gilgamesh hath not left the son to his father, 

"Nor the maid to the hero, nor the wife to her 
husband." 

They therefore cried to the goddess Aruru against the 
tyranny of Gilgamesh, complaining that he acted in this 
despotic manner because he had no rival to keep him 
in check. Day and night the people raised their com- 
plaint, and the gods of heaven heard them and had 
compassion upon them. And the gods also cried aloud 
to Aruru, bidding her create a being, equal to Gilga- 
mesh in strength, who might fight with him and limit 
his power. They urged that as she had created Gilga- 
mesh/ so she must now create his rival. Aruru listened 
to their words and proceeded to plan and to create a 
being who shouM be capable of opposing Gilgamesh. 
The passage referring to the creation of this being, who 
was named Ea-bani, reads as follows : — 

" Upon hearing these words (i.e., the words of the gods) 

" Aruru conceived a man of Anu ^ in her mind. 

" Aruru washed her hands, 

"She broke off a piece of clay, she cast it on the 
ground. 

"Thus she created Ea-bani, the hero." 

Ea-bani, however, was not wholly human in form. 

' It will be remembered that according to one version of the Crea- 
tion story, the goddess Aruru, in company with Mardulc, is credited 
with the creation of mankind ; see above, p. 90. 

' I.e., a divine man, a demi-god. In this phrase " Auu " is used as 
a general name for " god." 



THE CREATION OF EA-BANI. 151 

From his picture upon cylinder-seals we know that he 
had the head, and body, and arms of a man, but his 
legs were those of a beast. The following description 
of Ea-bani is given in the poem : — 

" The whole of his body was [covered] with hair, 

" He was clothed with long hair like a woman. 

" The quality of his hair was luxuriant, like that of 

the Corn-god. 
" He knew [not] the land and the inhabitants thereof, 
"He was clothed with garments as the god of the 

field. 

" With the gazelles he ate herbs, 

'' With the beasts he slaked his thirst, 

"With the creatures of the water his heart rejoiced." 

A new personage now comes on the scene and, from 

the abruptness with which he is introduced, it is 

evident that he has already been described in some 

previous portion of the poem that is wanting. This 

new personage is Tsaidu, "the hunter," who appears 

to have been sent into the mountains by Gilgamesh 

in order to capture Ea-bani. The gods no doubt in 

due time would have brought Ea-bani to Erech to do 

battle with Gilgamesh, and the object of Gilgamesh 

in sending Tsaidu to capture Ea-bani was clearly to 

forestall their intention, "The hunter" accordingly 

went out into the mountains and lay in wait for 

Ea-bani. For three days Tsaidu watched Ea-bani as 

he went down to the stream to drink, but he thought 



152 TSAIDU, THE HUNTER. 

he was too strong to overcome in single combat. He 
therefore returned to Erech and told Gilgamesh of the 
monster's strength; he described his own terror at 
beholding him, and added that he destroyed all the 
tra^DS which had been set for him, saying : — 
" He rangeth over [all] the mountains, 
" Eegularly with the beasts [he feedeth], 
" Eegularly his feet [are set] towards the drinking- 

place. 
■" But I was afraid, I could not approach him, 
" He hath filled up the pit which I digged, 
" He hath destroyed the nets which I [spread], 
''He hath caused the cattle and the beasts of the 

field to escape from my hands, 
" And he doth not let me make war (upon them)." 
Gilgamesh was not discouraged by Tsaidu's want of 
success, and he revealed to him a device by which he 
might capture Ea-bani, who had proved too cunning for 
the ordinary snares of the hunter, saying : — 
" Go, my Tsaidu, and take Ukhat with thee. 
"And when the beasts come down to the drinkinc- 

o 

place, 
" Then let her tear off her clothing and disclose her 

nakedness. 
"(Ea-bani) shall see her, and he shall draw nigh 

unto her, 
" And the cattle, which grew up on his field, shall 

forsake him." 



THE PLOT TO CAPTURE EA-BANI. 1 53 

XJkhat, whom Tsaidu was told to take with him, was 
one of the sacred women who were in the service of 
Ishtar and were attached to the ancient temple of 
that goddess in the city of Erech. The narrative 
continues : — 

" Tsaidu departed, and took with him the woman 
Ukhat. 

" They took the straight road, 

" And on the third day they reached the appointed 
place. 

" Then Tsaidu and, the woman placed themselves in 
hiding. 

" For one day, for two days, they lurked by the 
drinking-place. 

" With the beasts (Ea-bani) slaked his thirst, 

" With the creatures of the waters his heart rejoiced. 

" Then Ea-bani (approached) . . . , 

" With the gazelles be ate herbs, 

" With the beasts he slaked his thirst, 

"With the creatures of the water his heart rejoiced." 

As Ea-bani came near, Ukhat caught sight of him, 
and Tsaidu exclaimed : — 

" That is he, Ukhat, loosen thy girdle, 

"Uncover thy nakedness that he may receive thy 
favours, 

" Be not faint-hearted, lay hold upon his soul. 

" He shall see thee, and shall draw nigh unto thee. 

" Open thy garment, and he shall lie in thine arms. 



154 EA-BANI TEMPTED BY UKHAT. 

" Give him pleasure after the manner of women. 

" His cattle, which grew up in his field, shall forsake 
him, 

" "While he holdeth thee in the embraces of love." 

Ukhat did as Tsaidu bade her, and the plot was 
attended with success, as we may see from the following 
lines : — 

"Ukhat loosened her garment, she uncovered her 
nakedness, 

" She was not faint-hearted, and she laid hold upon 
his soul. 

" She opened her garment, and he lay in her arms. 

" She gave him pleasure after the manner of women, 

" And he held her in the embraces of love. 

" For six days and six nights Ea-bani drew nigh and 
tarried with Ukhat. 

" After he had satisfied himself with her abundance, 

" He turned his attention to his cattle. 

" His gazelles lay, and looked at Ea-bani, 

'•■ The beasts of the field turned away from him. 

" Ea-bani was terrified, his body grew stiff, 

" His knees stood still, as his cattle departed." 

Ea-bani, however, did not attempt to pursue them or 
to induce them to return to him. Eecovering from his 
dismay he turned once more to the companion at his 
side and — 

"He returned to love, he sat at the feet of the 
woman. 



mS LOVE FOR THE WOMAN. 155 

" And he gazed up iato her face, 

" And as the woman spake he listened. 

" And the woman said unto Ea-bani : 

" ' Thou art of great stature, Ea-bani, and art like 

unto a god. 
" Why then dost thou lie with the beasts of the field ? 
" Come, let me bring thee to strong-walled Erech, 
"To the bright house, the dwelling of Anu and 

Ishtar, 
"To the palace of Gilgamesh, who is perfect in 

strength, 
" And who, like a mountain-bull, wieldeth power 

over men.' 
"She spake unto him and he hearkened unto her 

word, 
" In the wisdom of his heart he wished for a friend. 
" Ea-bani spake unto the woman : 
" ' Come then, Ukhat, lead me away, 
" To the bright and holy dwelling of Anu and Ishtar, 
" To the palace of Gilgamesh, who is perfect in 

strength, 
"And who like [a mountain-bull wieldeth power] 

over men.' " 
The text of the poem which follows is broken, and it 
is only with difficulty that the thread of the narrative 
can be made out. Ea-bani had heard so much of the 
might of Gilgamesh from Ukhat that he desired to win 
his friendship ; but, it appears, he first wished to test 



IS6 GILGAMESH AND EA-BANI. 

the hero's strength, and to join with him in battle. It 
was with this object that he set out with Ukhat for the 
city of Erech, and they happened to arrive there during 
the celebration of a festival. Ea-bani, however, had a 
dream in which he was warned to refrain from 
attempting to do battle with Gilgamesh. He was told 
that Gilgamesh was more powerful than he, and that, 
as by day and by night he did not rest, he could not 
hope to take him unawares. He was also told in his 
dream that Gilgamesh was beloved of Shamash, the 
Sun-god, and that the three great gods, Anu, Bel, and 
Ea, had given wisdom unto him. 

Meanwhile Gilgamesh also had a dream, and he was 
troubled because he could not interpret it. He there- 
fore went to his mother Aruru and enquired of her 
the meaning of his vision. He told her that in his 
vision the stars of heaven seemed to fall upon him, and 
his mother seems to have interpreted the dream as fore- 
telling the coming of Ea-bani, and also to have advised 
him to make friends with Ea-bani. 

Gilgamesh and Ea-bani did not enter into combat, 
and the Third Tablet of the series tells how they 
became friends. Erom the fragments of the text which 
remain, it appears that Ea-bani did not at first give 
heed to the warning vouchsafed him in his dream, 
and it was only after the personal intervention of the 
Sun-god that he gave up the desire to do battle with 
Gilgamesh, and consented to treat him henceforth as 



EXPEDITION AGAINST KHUMBABA. 1 57 

his comrade. In order to induce Ea-bani to remain 
at Erech, Shamash conferred on him royal rank, and 
he promised him that he should recline on a great 
couch while the princes of the earth kissed his feet, 
and that the people of Erech should proclaim their 
submission unto him. Ea-bani listened to the Sun- 
god, and consented to remain in Erech as the friend 
of Gilgamesh. 

The next section of the poem is also incomplete, 
but enough of the text remains to enable us to make 
out the story, which concerns an expedition under- 
taken by both heroes against an Elamite despot* 
named Khumbaba. The preparations for the expedi- 
tion and the battle with Khumbaba are described upon 
the Fourth and Fifth Tablets of the series. Before 
setting out for the castle of Khumbaba, Ea-bani prayed 
to the Sun-god, and Gilgamesh recounted to his friend 
a favourable dream which had been sent to him, in 
which he beheld the dead body of Khumbaba. In 
due time the two heroes came to a wood of cedar 
trees, in the middle of which Khumbaba's castle was 
built. Khumbaba was feared by all who dwelt near 
him, for his roaring was like the storm, and any man, 
who was rash enough to enter into his cedar wood, 
perished. The two heroes, however, undismayed by 
the reports of their enemy's power, pressed forward 

' The people of Elam, wMch was situated to the east of Mcsopo- 
tauiia, vrere.from an early period, in constant conflict with Babylonia. 



IS8 THE SLAYING OF KHUMBABA. 

on their journey. They entered the wood, but were 
amazed at the great size of the trees that grew therein, 
and in the words of the poem — 

" They stood still, and marvelled at the wood, 

" They gazed at the height of the cedars, 

" They gazed at the entrance of the wood, 

"The place where Khumbaba was wont to walk 

and set his foot. 
" The road had been laid out, and the path was well 

made." 
After describing the beauty of the greatest of the 
cedars, which possessed a pleasant and delightful shade 
and a sweet smell, the tablet breaks off. How the 
heroes penetrated to the castle, and in what manner 
they succeeded in slaying Khumbaba, we do not know ; 
but that they were successful in the fight is clear from 
the last line of the tablet. Half this line is preserved 
and reads "the head of Khumbaba," from which we 
may perhaps infer that Gilgamesh and Ea-bani, after 
slaying the tyrant, cut off his head from his body. 

Hitherto the heroes had only met with success. 
Enjoying the favour of the Sun-god, they had suc- 
ceeded in slaying a powerful enemy of their city, and 
they now returned to Erech elated with their victory. 
Erom this time forward, however, their lot was not 
so happy, and the Sixth Tablet gives the reason of 
their misfortunes, for it narrates how Gilgamesh in- 
curred the wrath of the powerful goddess Ishtar. The 



ishtar's passion for GILGAMESII. 1 59 

tablet opens with an account of how, on his return 
from Erech, Gilgamesh removed the stains of battle, 
and clothed himself in his royal robes, in the following 
words : — 

" [He cleansed] his weapons, he polished his weapons, 
" [He removed] his armour from upon him, 
" [He took off] his soiled garments, he clothed him- 
self in clean raiment. 
"He donned [his robes of] honour, he bound on 

his diadem, 
" Gilgamesh wore his crown, he bound on his 

diadem." 
The sight of the hero thus arrayed on his return 
from battle kindled with love for him the heart of 
the goddess Ishtar. The poem tells how she beheld 
the comeliness of Gilgamesh, and addressed him in 
these words : — 

" Come, Gilgamesh, be thou my spouse. 

" Bestow thy strength upon me as a gift, 

"And thou shalt be my husband, and I will be 

thy wife. 
" I will set thee in a chariot of la;pis lazuli and gold, 
"With wheels made of gold and horns made of 

diamonds, 
" And mighty . . . steeds shalt thou yoke to it. 
"Thou shalt enter our house with the sweet scent 

of cedars. 
" When thou enterest our house. 



l60 GILGAMESH REPULSES ISHTAR. 

" [The great and] the mighty shall kiss thy feet. 
"Kings, and rulers, and princes shall bow down 

before thee, 
"And from mountain and plain shall they bring 

gifts unto thee as tribute." 
The goddess promised in addition that his flocks 
should bear twins, that the horses of his chariot should 
be swift, and that his cattle should be unrivalled. 
But Gilgamesh refused her proffered love, remembering 
the fate of those who had already enjoyed it, and thus 
upbraided her with her treachery : — 
" On Tammuz, the spouse of thy youth, 
" Thou didst lay affliction every year. 
" Thou didst love the brilliant AUalu-bird, 
" But thou didst smite him and break his wing ; 
" He stands in the woods, and cries, ' my wing.' 
"Thou didst also love a lion, perfect in strength, 
" Seven by seven didst thou dig snares for him. 
" Thou didst also love a horse, pre-eminent in battle ; 
" Bridle, spur, and whip didst thou lay upon him, 
" Thou didst make him to gallop for seven hasbu, 
" Trouble and sweating didst thou force him to bear, 
" And on his mother Silili thou didst lay affliction. 
" Thou didst also love a shepherd of the flock, 
" "Who continually poured out for thee the libation (?), 
" And daily slaughtered kids for thee ; 
" But thou didst smite him, and didst change him 
into a leopard, 



THE BULL FROM HEAVEN. l6l 

" So that his own sheep- boy hunted him, 
" And his own hounds tore him to pieces." 
Gilgamesh also recounted the sad fate of a gardener 
in the service of Anu, Ish tar's father, whom she had 
loved. Every day he brought her costly gifts and made 
bright the dish from which she ate ; but when she grew 
tired of him she changed him into a cripple, so that 
henceforth he could not rise from his bed. Gilgamesh 
ended his taunts with the words, "As for me, thou 
" wouldst love me, and like unto them thou wouldst 
" [afflict me]." 

When Ishtar heard this she was enraged and she went 
up into heaven, where she sought out her father Anu, 
and her mother Anatu, and complained that Gilgamesh 
had scorned her. Anu attempted to soothe her, but she 
demanded vengeance upon Gilgamesh, and asked Anu 
to create a monstrous bull, named Alu, which should 
destroy the hero. Anu yielded to his imperious 
daughter and created the bull in accordance with her 
wish. The account of the battle between the bull and 
the two heroes Ea-bani and Gilgamesh, is very in- 
complete, but the struggle seems to have been long and 
fierce, and towards the end of the account we read that 
Ea-bani seized the bull by the tail so that Gilgamesh 
was no doubt enabled to slay the monster with his 
sword. In the accompanying illustration, we see Gil- 
gamesh and Ea-bani each engaged in conflict with a 
bull. The picture may possibly be based upon some 

BAB. EEL. M 



l62 



THE FIGHT WITH THE BULL. 



variant iorm of the legend, according to which Ann sent 
two divine bulls against Gilgamesh and his friend. 
Perhaps it is simpler, however, to regard it as a picture 
of the two heroes on a hunting expedition, for on 
other cylinder-seals they are frequently represented as 
struggling with several bulls and lions at the same time. 
It will be noticed that in the centre of the picture is a 
fir tree growing upon what appears to be a pile of stones. 




Ea-l^ani and Gilgamesh in confiict ^\itli two bulls. (From a cylinder-seal in the 
British Museum, No. S9,30S.) 

The small half circles, however, which look like stones, 
are conventional representations of mountains ; the 
engraver intended to convey the impression that the 
fight with the bulls took place in a well-wooded and 
mountainous country. 

The poem next describes the wrath of Ishtar at the 
death of the bull as follows : — 

" Then Ishtar went up on to the wall of strong-walled 
Erech ; 

" She mounted to the top and she uttered a curse, 
(saying), 



EA-BANI TAUNTS ISHTAR. 163 

" ' Cursed be Gilgamesh, who has provoked me to 
anger, 

" And has slain the bull from heaven.' 

" When Ea-bani heard these words of Ishtar, 

" He tore out the entrails (?) of the bull, 

" And he cast them before her, (crying), 

" ' As for thee, I will conquer thee, 

"And I will do to thee even as I have done to 
him.' " 

Thus Ea-bani drew down upon himself the wrath of 
Ishtar. 

Then Ishtar assembled the three grades of priestesses 
attached to her service and they made lamentation over 
the death of the bull. 

The horns of the bull were of great value, for they 
were exceedingly large and each of them held six 
measures of oil. Gilgamesh, therefore, in gratitude for 
his victory, dedicated them to the Sun-god, who is 
described in this passage of the poem under the local 
name of Lugal-Marada, that is " King of Marad," Marad 
being a city in Babylonia. After dedicating the horns 
with much ceremony at the altar of the god, Gilgamesh 
and his attendants washed their hands in the Euphrates 
and then set out for Erech. On their arrival they rode 
through the streets of the city, and the people gathered 
together to gaze upon them as they passed. The 
princesses of the city also came out to meet Gilgamesh, 
and he cried out unto them, saying — 



1^4 EA-BANI'S DEATH. 

" Who is glorious among heroes ? 

" Who is mighty among men ? 

" Gilgamesh is glorious among heroes, 

" Gilgamesh is mighty among men." 

In this manner he passed through Erech and entered 
into his palace. There he prepared a banquet at which 
he entertained his friends in honour of his victory over 
the great bull. After the banquet the guests reclined 
upon their couches and slept. During Ea-bani's sleep 
he saw a vision, and when he awoke in the morning he 
drew nigh to Gilgamesh and began to tell him of the 
things which he had seen. 

The Seventh Tablet begins with Ea-bani's account 
of his dream, but so few fragments of the text of this 
and the following tablet have been preserved that it 
is not possible to follow the course of .the narrative at 
this point. All we know for certain is that Ea-bani's 
death occurs at the end of the Eighth Tablet. He 
seems to have received a wound in battle, but in 
what manner and at the hands of what foe, we cannot 
say. All that we can gather from the mutilated text 
is that he was laid low upon his bed with the sickness 
which resulted from his wound. For twelve days he 
lay sick, and having summoned Gilgamesh to his bed- 
side, and having told him the manner in which he 
had received his wound, he died. We may reasonably 
conjecture that his death was brought about by 
Ishtar, whose anger he had aroused. Gilgamesh himself 



THE GRIEF OF GILGAMESH. 165 

escaped from death, but we find he had been smitten 
with a sore sickness, which no doubt was also due to 
the anger of the great goddess whose love he had 
scorned. 

The Ninth Tablet opens with the lament of Gilga- 
mesh for the death of his friend, and with his resolve 
to seek out his ancestor, Tsit-napishtim, who might 
perhaps help him to escape a similar fate. The tablet 
begins as follows : — 
"For his friend Ea-bani 
" Gilgamesh wept bitterly and he lay stretched out 

upon the ground. 
" (He cried) : ' Let me not die like Ea-bani ! 
" Grief hath entered into my body, and 
" I fear death, and I lie stretched out upon the 

ground. 
" To (test) the power of Tsit-napishtim, son of Ubara- 

Tutu, 
" I will set out, and I will not tarry by the way.' " 
Gilgamesh describes his journey thus :— 
" To a mountain gorge I came by night, 
" Lions I beheld, and I was terrified. 
" I raised my head and I prayed to the Moon-god, 
" And to the [chief] of the gods came my cry, 
" [And he hearkened and] showed favour unto me." 
From what remains of the text it appears that Gil- 
gamesh had a dream in which the Moon-god shewed 
him the way by which he might safely pass over the 



1 66 THE MOUNTAIN OF THE SUNSET. 

mountains. Gilgamesh succeeded in crossing the first 
mountain range wliicli barred his path, and he next 
came to a still greater mountain named Mashu, that 
is to say, the Mountain of the Sunset. The poem 
continues as follows : — 

" Then he came to the Mountain of Mashu, 

"The portals of which are guarded daily [by 

monsters] ; 
" Their backs mount up to the rampart of heaven, 
" And their fore parts reach down beneath Arallu. 
" Scorpion-men guard the gate (of Mashu) ; 
"They strilce terror [into men], and it is death to 

behold them. 
"Their splendour is great, for it overwhelms the 

mountains ; 
" From sunrise to sunset they guard the Sun. 
" Gilgamesh beheld them, 
" And his face grew dark with fear and terror, 
"And the wildness of their aspect robbed him of 

his senses." 
One of the Scorpion-men then caught sight of Gil- 
gamesh, and, turning to his wife, told her that the 
body of the man they saw approaching resembled that 
of a god. His wife replied that Gilgamesh was partly 
divine and partly human. The Scorpion-man then 
told her how Gilgamesh had set out on his long 
journey in accordance with the will of the gods, and 
he described the steep mountains which he had already 



THE REGION OF THICK DARKNESS. 167 

crossed. Gilgamesh, seeing that the monster regarded 
him with friendly eyes, recovered from his fright, and 
told him of the purpose of his journey, namely, to go 
to Tsit-napishtim, his ancestor, who stood in the 
assembly of the gods, and had the power over life and 
death. The Scorpion-man replied by describing the 
difficulties and dangers which he would encounter if 
he persisted in his purpose of traversing the 'Mountain 
of Mashu, adding that for twelve kashu, that is, for a 
space of twenty-four hours, he would have to pass 
through thick darkness. But Gilgamesh was not dis- 
couraged. The Scorpion-man, therefore, yielded to his 
request, and opened the gate of the mountain and let 
him through. 

For twenty-four hours Gilgamesh marched onwards, 
" and the darkness was thick and there was no Kght." 
But at the end of this long and dreadful journey he 
came out once more into the light of the sun, and the 
first thing he beheld was a beautiful and wonderful 
tree. The poem describes the tree in the following 
words : — 

" Precious stones it bore as fruit, 

"Branches hung from it which were beautiful to 
behold. 

" The top of the tree was lapis lazuli, 

" And it was laden with fruit which dazzled the eye 
of him that beheld." 

This tree grew in a great park or orchard beside 



1 68 THE PRINCESS SABITU. 

other trees ■which were also laden with precious stones ; 
but Gilgamesh did not tarry among the trees nor stop 
to gather their fruit. The shore of the sea was not 
far off and he wished to lose no time in reaching it, 
for he knew that he must cross the sea to reach 
Tsit-napishtim his ancestor. 

The text of the Tenth Tablet reveals to us Gilga- 
mesh involved in further troubles. The sea-coast, to 
which he had now come, was ruled over by a princess 
named Sabitu, who dwelt in a pal^ice by the shore. 
She beheld Gilgamesh from afar, and, as he drew 
near, she went into her palace and shut the door. 
Without her assistance, however, Gilgamesh could not 
cross the sea, so he went up to her door and demanded 
why she had shut it, and threatened that if she did 
not open it he would break it down. A gap in the 
text prevents us from knowing Sabitu's answer to this 
threat. When the text is again continuous we find 
Gilgamesh telling Sabitu the reason of his journey, 
namely, that he may learn how to escape the fate of 
his friend Ea-bani ; he ended by asking her the way to 
the abode of Tsit-napishtim, saying — 

" [Tell me] Sabitu, which is the way to Tsit-na- 
pishtim ? 

" If it is possible, I will cross the sea. 

" But if it is not possible, I will lie me down upon 
the ground in despair." 

Sabitu replied, saying — 



ARAD-EA, THE SAILOR. 169 

" Gilgaraesh, there hath never been a ferry (here), 

" Neither hath any one ever crossed the sea. 

" The hero Shamash hath crossed the sea, but, besides 
Shamash, ■who can cross it ? 

" The crossing is difficult, the way is very hard, 

" The Waters of Death are shut in (?), they are closed 
up as with a bolt. 

" Gilgamesh, how canst thou cross the sea ? 

" And if thou shouldst come to the Waters of Death, 
what wouldst thou do ? " 

Sabitu, however, told Gilgamesh that there was one 
who might perhaps help him, namely, Arad-Ea, the 
sailor who served Tsit-napishtim. To him she sent him 
and told him to ask Arad-Ea to take him across. If he 
refused, Gilgamesh would have to turn back. 

Gilgamesh sought out Arad-Ea and told him of his 
grief, and of the reason of his journey ; he then made 
the request that he would show him the way to Tsit- 
napishtim, and ended his demand wibh the words he 
had already used to Sabitu, saying — 

" If it is possible, I will cross the sea, 

" But if it is not possible, I will lie me down upon 
the ground in despair." 

Arad-Ea consented to make the journey, and told 
Gilgamesh to go into the wood and cut down a tree 
out of which he might make a large rudder for the ship, 
since they would need special tackle for the voyage. 
The poem then describes how they made their pre- 
parations and set out on their journey, as follows — 



170 



THE WATERS OF DEATH. 



" Gilgamesli on hearing this (i.e., Arad-Ea's instruc- 
tions) 

" Took his axe in his hand .... 

" And he went into the wood and [cut] a rudder, five 
measures in length, 

" And he smeared it all over with pitch. 

" Gilgamesh and Arad-Ea then went up into [the 
ship]. 

" The ship was thrust out into the waves, and they 
began their voyage. 



r ^i-^sr-^i-- ' 




'/.is; M^'yflV^/*^' 



Gitgamesli and Arad-Ea crossing the ocean and the " "Waters of Death." On the left 
ot the picture is a representation of Gilgamesh and Ea-bani in conflict with a lion. 
(From a cylinder-seal in the British iMuseum, No. S9,588.) 

" A course of one month and five days within three 

days [did they accomplish], 
" And thus Arad-Ea arrived at the Waters of Death." 
To pass over the Waters of Death was a task attended 
with difficulty and danger, and Arad-Ea needed all the 
help that Gilgamesh could give him to steer the ship in 
safety. After they had made the passage, Gilgamesh 
loosened his girdle and rested from his exertions. 
Then they drew nigh the shore of the land where 



THE MEETING WITH TSIT-NAPISHTIM. I/I 

Tsit-napishtim and his wife dwelt apart from mankind. 
Tsit-napishtim beheld Gilgamesh afar off and marvelled 
to see a living man cross the Waters of Death. Gilga- 
mesh then approached the shore and, while still sitting in 
the ship, he explained to Tsit-napishtim the reason he 
•had sought him out. He told him of his adventures with 
Ea-bani, and he described the sad death of his friend 
and his own grief at his loss. He recounted how he 
had set out to seek help from Tsit-napishtim, and how 
on his journey he had passed over steep mountains and 
crossed dangerous seas. He ended his long recital by 
asking his ancestor how he might escape the sad fate of 
death that had overtaken Ea-bani his friend. 

Tsit-napishtim was grieved at the words of GUgamesh, 
but told him he could do nothing to help him to escape 
from death. He told him that death comes to all, and 
that no man could escape from it, 
" As long as houses are built, . . . 
" And as long as brethren quarrel, 
" And as long as there is hatred in the land, 
" And as long as the river beareth its waters [to the 

sea]." 
He added that the gods whose lot it is to decree 
death pass sentence when they will, and that no man 
could tell when his own time might come. And he 
said — 

" The Anunnaki, the great gods, decree fate, 

"And with them Mammetum, the maker of destiny, 



1/2 TSIT-NAPISHTIM'S STORY. 

" And they determine death and life, 

" But the days of death are not known." 

With these words the Tenth Tablet of the poem 
ends. 

On the Eleventh Tablet Gilgamesh asked Tsit- 
napishtim the reason of his own escape from death.- 
He gazed upon him, and, seeing that his appearance 
was like that of a living man, said — 

" I behold thee, Tsit-napishtim, 

"But thy appearance is not changed. As I am, so 
art thou also. 

" Yea, thou art not changed. As I am, so art thou 
also." 

He then asked him the reason, saying, 

" [Tell me], How didst thou obtain the life which thou 
dost enjoy in the assembly of the gods ? " 

In reply to this question, Tsit-napishtim told Gilga- 
mesh the story of the dgluge, which has been already 
described in Chapter IV. 

During the telling of the story, Gilgamesh sat listen- 
ing at a little distance from the shore in the ship, for, 
sore-smitten as he was with sickness, he was not able 
to go up from the ship. When Tsit-napishtim had 
finished the tale of his own adventures he turned to 
the hero and promised to restore him to health, for that 
at least he could do, though he could not show him a way 
to escape from death when his time should come. As a 
first step towards the recovery Tsit-napishtim bade him 



THE HEALING OF GILGAMESH. 173 

sleep. For six days and six nights Gilgamesh con- 
tinued to sit in the ship, and at the end of that time 
sleep came upon him suddenly "like a storm." While 
Gilgamesh slept, Tsit-napishtim told his wife to prepare 
some magic food, which she administered unto him 
while he slept. On awaking from his sleep Gilgamesh 
felt that he was enchanted, and asked what had been 
done to him, and they told him of the magical food 
which had been prepared and which he had eaten. To 
complete his cure Tsit-napishtim caused Arad-Ea to 
carry Gilgamesh to a certain fountain where he washed 
his sores in the healing waters, and he was cleansed 
from his terrible disease. When he was about to 
depart on his homeward journey, the wife of Tsit-na- 
pishtim asked her husband what they could give him to 
ensure his safe return to his own land. Although 
Tsit-napishtim had already told Gilgamesh that no man 
could escape from death, yet now, as the latter was pre- 
paring to take his leave, he disclosed to him the exist- 
ence of a magic plant which had the power of prolonging 
life. Gilgamesh then set sail in company with Arad-Ea 
to go and search for the plant. They succeeded in find- 
inw it, and Gilgamesh joyfully cried that he would carry 
it to Erech with him, and that by eating it he would 
regain his youth. Gilgamesh and Arad-Ea then turned 
back carrying the plant with them. And when they 
had journeyed thirty Tcashu, they came to a brook 
wherein flowed cool and refreshing water. And when 



174 GILGAMESH MOURNS FOR EA-BANI. 

GUgamesh went down to the brook to drink, a demon 
in the form of a serpent darted out and carried away the 
plant. Gilgamesh bitterly lamented the loss of the 
plant, but could do nothing to recover it. He therefore 
continued his journey and in due time returned to 
Erech. With this incident the Eleventh Tablet 
closes. 

The Twelfth Tablet of the poem relates how Gilga- 
mesh, after his return from his long journey, continued 
to lament for Ea-bani. He called to mind the common 
acts of daily life, which his friend could no longer 
perform, now that he was imprisoned in the under- 
world, and addressing Ea-bani he said — 

"Thou canst no longer stretch thy bow upon the 

earth ; 
" And those who were slain with the bow are round 

about thee. 
" Thou canst no longer bear a sceptre in thy hand ; 
" And the spirits of the dead have taken thee captive. 
" Thou canst no longer wear shoes upon thy feet ; 
"Thou canst no longer raise thy war-cry on the 

earth. 
" No more dost thou kiss thy wife whom thou didst 

love; 
" No more dost thou smite thy wife whom thou didst 

hate. 
"Ko more dost thou kiss thy daughter whom thou 
didst love ; 



EA-BANI'S RETURN FROM THE DEAD. 1 75 

" No more dost thou smite thy daughter whom thou 
didst hate. 

"The sorrow of the Underworld hath taken hold 
upon thee." 

GUgamesh then appealed to the gods to help him in 
his sorrow and to enable him to again behold his friend. 
With this object he went alone into the temple of the 
god Bel, and, addressing him as his " father," told him 
of his trouble ; but Bel could not help him. He next 
told his sorrow to Sin, the Moon-god, but he too could 
do nothing for him ; and Ea, to whom he next appealed, 
could do naught to help him. Last of all he besought 
Nergal, the god of the dead, to use his power and to 
restore Ea-bani to him. On hearing the prayer of 
GUgamesh, Nergal granted his request. He opened 
the ground, and " caused the spirit of Ea-bani to come 
" forth from the earth like a wind." 

Gilgamesh thereupon asked Ea-bani to describe to 
him the underworld, crying, " Tell me, my friend, tell 
" me ; tell me the appearance of the land which thou 
" hast seen." But Ea-bani replied, " I cannot tell thee, 
" my friend, I cannot tell thee." This refusal to speak 
of the abode of the dead was not due to any command 
laid upon Ea-bani not to reveal such matters to the 
living, but was prompted by his grief at the dreariness 
of the region from which he had just been released. 
After bidding Gilgamesh sit down and weep, he pro- 
ceeded to describe the underworld as an abode of 



176 THE CONDITION OF THE DEAD. 

misery, where was the worm which devoured, and 
where all was cloaked in dust. The text is here im- 
perfect, but the closing lines of the tablet which contain 
the end of Ea-bani's description of the condition of the 
dead are preserved. In this passage Ea-bani contrasts 
the lot of the warrior, who has received due burial, 
with that of the man whose corpse is left uncared for 
on the field, in the following words : — 
" On a couch he lieth 

" And drinketh pure water, 
" The man who was slain in battle — thou and I have 

oft seen such an one. 
" His father and his mother [support] his head, 

" And his wife [kneeleth] at his side. 
" But the man whose corpse is cast upon the field — 

" Thou and I have oft seen such an one — 
" His spirit resteth not in the earth. 
'■' The man whose spirit has none to care for it — 

" Thou and I have oft seen such an one — 
" The dregs of the vessel, the leavings of the feast, 
" And that which is cast out upon the street, are 
his food." 
"With these words the poem comes to an end. 
We have followed the exploits of the hero Gilgamesh 
as they are told on the tablets from Ashur-bani-pal's 
library, and from their varied nature it is clear that 
they have been drawn from many different sources. 
What historical foundation may underlie the tales told 



COMPOSITION OF THE POEM. 177 

of this early king of Erech we cannot say, but it is 
legitimate to suppose that some early ruler did perform 
acts of valour in the past, and that his name has formed 
a centre around which stories and legends gathered in 
the course of centuries. To separate the different 
narratives which have been combined to form the poem 
as we know it would scarcely repay the trouble of 
analysis, but a bare enumeration of the principal 
sections of the story will suffice to show its composite 
nature. The rule of Gilgamesh in Erech, the story of 
Ukhat and Ea-bani, the expedition against Khumbaba, 
the love of the goddess Ishtar for Gilgamesh, the slay- 
ing of the monstrous bull, the journey of Gilgamesh to 
the Mountain of the Sunset, the passage of the Waters 
of Death, Tsit-napishtim's story of the Deluge, the 
search for the Plant of Life, and the recall of Ea-bani's 
spirit from the underworld — such are the chief sections 
into which the poem falls. Of these the account of the 
deluge is the section most loosely connected with the 
story of Gilgamesh, but other sections of the poem, 
which have been more skilfully interwoven, were 
doubtless at one time entirely independent of the 
narrative. 

We may assume that many of these tales go back 
to hoary antiquity, and that in the course of time they 
became associated with the name of Gilgamesh, having 
previously been associated with the names of other 
heroes. It is interesting to note that as Gilgamesh 

BiB. EEL. N 



178 GILGAMESH AND ALEXANDER. 

was thus credited with adventures that were not 
his by right, so at a later time some of his exploits 
were borrowed to add lustre to the fame of another 
popular hero, Alexander the Great. As Gilgamesh set 
out to learn the secret of immortality, and in the course 
of his journey came to the Mountain of Mashu, and 
passed through a region of thick darkness, and crossed 
the Waters of Death, so Alexander is said to have 
journeyed in search of the Waters of Life, and to have 
come to a mountain called Musas or Masis, and to 
have passed through the land of darkness, and to have 
crossed the foetid sea.^ This journey of Gilgamesh, 
moreover, in consequence of its being ascribed to Alex- 
ander in the text of Pseudo-Callisthenes, has found an 
echo in the Koran.* 

Of the various sections of the great Babylonian 
poem describing the deeds of Gilgamesh the most 
interesting portions are perhaps those towards the end 
in which Ea-bani talks with Gilgamesh after the release 
of the former from the underworld; for from these 
passages we gain some information with regard to the 
conceptions formed by the Babylonians of a future life. 
Another of the principal legends of the Babylonians 
recounts how the goddess Ishtar once left the earth 
and descended into the underworld, and the poem in 

' See Budge, The History of Alexander {he Great, pp. 148, 171 ff., 
and Tlie Life and Exploite of Alexander the Great, Vol. I., pp. xl. f. ; 
M(iissner, Alexander und Gilgamoa, pp. 4 ff, 

^ Sura, xviii. 



ishtar's descent into the underworld. 179 

■which this legend has been preserved enables us to 
augment the fragments of Ea-bani's description of the 
dead that have come down to us.^ The poem describing 
the descent of the goddess begins as follows : — 

"To the land whence none return, the place of 

darkness, 
" Ishtar the daughter of Sin inclined her ear.^ 
" The daughter of Sin inclined her ear 
" To the house of darkness, the seat of the god 

Irkalla, 
"To the house from which none who enter come 

forth again, 
" To the road whose course returns not, 
" To the house wherein he who enters is excluded 

from the light, 
"To the place where dust is their bread, and mud 

their food. 
" They behold not the light, they dwell in darkness, 
" And are clothed like birds in a garment of feathers 
" And over door and bolt the dust is scattered. 
" "When Ishtar drew near the gate of the land whence 

none return, 
" She spake to the porter at the gate : 
" ' Ho ! Porter ! Open thy gate ! 
" Open thy gate that I may enter in. 

' Cf. Jeremias, Die lahyloniscli-aBSiiriachen Yorstellungen vom Lchen 
nach dem Tode, pp. 10 ff. 
2 I.e., turntd her atttntion. 



l8o THE GATES OF THE UNDERWORLD. 

"If thou openest not thy gate, so that I may not 
enter, 

" I will smite the door, I will shatter the bolt, 

" I will smite the threshold and tear down the doors, 

" I will raise up the dead, that they may devour the 
living, 

" And the dead shall outnumber those that live.' 

" The porter opened his mouth, 

" And addressed the mighty Ishtar : 

" ' Stay, Lady, do not throw it down. 

"Let me go and declare thy name to the queen 
Allatu.' " 

The porter then went to Allatu, the queen of the 
underworld, and told her of Ishtar's coming; but 
Allatu was angered at the news and wept for Ishtar's 
victims, and she bade the porter admit her, saying — 

" Go, porter, open thy gate for her, 

" And take possession of her according to the ancient 
laws." 

The poem then describes how Ishtar was admitted, 
and how she was gradually stripped of her clothing, 
in the following words : — 

"The porter went and opened his gate for her, 
(saying), 

" • Enter, Lady, let Cuthah i be glad at [thee]. 

In Cuthah was E-shidlam, the great temple of Nergal the god 
of the dead ; the name of the city is here used as a synonym for the 
underworld. 



ALLATU'S CRUELTY. l8l 

"Let the palace of the land whence none return 

rejoice before thee.' 
" The Fh-st Gate he made her enter, . . . and he took 
the great crown from off her head. 
Why, porter, didst thou take the great crown 
from off my head ? ' 
" ' Enter, O Lady, for thus are the laws of AUatu.' " 
In this manner was Ishtar made to pass through 
each of the seven gates of the underworld. At every 
gate an article of her apparel was removed, and to her 
remonstrances the porter always made the same reply, 
bidding her pass through the gate, for such were the 
laws of AUatu. Thus, naked and powerless, she was 
brought into Allatu's presence. The queen of the 
underworld did not receive her with favour, and 
commanded Xamtar, the demon of the plague, to 
strike her with disease in all the members of her body. 
But Ishtar was not left for ever in the clutches of 
AUatu. The absence of the goddess of love from the 
earth soon brought disaster upon men and beasts, for 
they no longer felt the desires of the body, and all 
creatures ceased to perform their natural functions. 
News of this calamity was carried to Shamash the 
Sun-god by Pap-sukal, the minister of the gods, and 
Shamash hastened to Sin and to Ea to consult with 
them as to what measures should be taken to remedy 
this state of things. Ea thereupon created a being 
named Uddushu-namir, whom he sent down to the 



i8: 



ishtar's return to earth. 



underworlJ to procure the release of Islitar. Following 
Ea'.s instructions Udduslm-nrimir obtained admittance 
to the underworld and appeared before AUatu. He 
conjured her by the power of the great gods to grant 
him tlie Waters of Life, l)y means of which he intended 
to restore Ishtar to life. AUatu was enraged at the 
request, and, althougii she could not resist the power 
he liad invoked on Ijehalf of Ishtar, she wreaked her 




IV'liresentation upon a Babylonian cylinder-seal of the Roilde.ss Islitai- and otlier deities. 
In tlje centie is Sliamasli, the eun-gud. lisiii^^ on tlie liorizon. On his right, hy the 
Bide of a fcacred tree, stands the goddess Ishtar, with outstretched winps. On her 
right is a god holding a bow and a lion, and on her left are a river-god and another 
deity. The name of tlie owner of the seal, written to the left of the picture, is 
"Adda, the scribe." (British Museum, No. 83,115.) 

vengeance upon him and cursed him with a terrible 
curse. She then turned to Namtar and told him to 
bring Islitar forth and sprinkle over her the Waters of 
Life. When this had been done Ishtar was led out 
through the seven gates of the underworld, and at 
each of the gates the article of her apparel that had 
previously been taken from her was restored. Thus 
was she brought back again to earth. 



TAMMUZ AND ISHTAR. 183 

la the actual text of the legend we are not told 
Ishtar's motive in descending into the underworld, 
but we may perhaps see a reference to it in the last 
few lines of the poem. Considerable doubt exists with 
regard to the interpretation of these lines, but it seems 
clear that they are not a continuation of the narrative 
and that they were intended to be addressed to the 
persons who may be supposed to have heard the poem 
recited — perhaps to certain mourners for the dead. In 
this exhortation the reciter refers to Tammuz, the 
spouse of Ishtar's youth, and he bids his hearers pour 
out pure water in his honour and offer him goodly oil. 
A little further on a reference is made to " the day of 
" Tammuz " as a time when male and female mourners 
made lamentation and when incense was burnt. It may 
be conjectured therefore that the motive of the goddess 
in descending to the underworld was to bring back her 
youthful husband from the dead, and the poem in the 
form in which we have it would in that case contain 
only a part of the original legend. This story of the 
goddess Ishtar was possibly recited at the annual 
festival held in commemoration of the death of Tammuz, 
when women mourned for the dead god in Babylonia, 
as they mourned for him at Jerusalem in the time of 
the prophet Ezekiel.^ 

We have seen that a portion of the poem of Gilga- 
mesh, and the legend of the goddess Ishtar, contained 
' Ezek. yiii. 14. 



184 ETANA AND THE EAGLE. 

descriptions and stories of the underworld; for the 
underworld was a mysterious abode about which 
legends would naturally gather. Heaven was also a 
place of mystery, and it is not surprising that stories 
of heroes who had journeyed thither should also find a 
place in Babylonian mythology. One such story is told 
of an old Babylonian hero named Etana, who, with the 
help of his friend the Eagle, succeeded in penetrating 
into heaven. A series of tablets existed in Ashur-bani- 
pal's library, which recounted the deeds of Etana,^ and 
on most of the fragments that remain the Eagle appears 
as Etana' s friend and comrade. On one occasion, when 
the wife of Etana was about to bear him a son, but 
■could not bring the child to the birth, the Eagle 
helped Etana to procure the " Plant of Birth " which 
would ensure a safe delivery. On another occasion 
the Eagle carried Etana up to heaven. The hero 
clung to the Eagle's wings, and they mounted together 
till they could see the gates of heaven. .As they drew 
near to the Gate of Anu, Bel, and Ea and to the 
Gate of Sin, Shamash, Eamman, and Ishtar, they 
beheld a throne of great splendour, and Etana was 
afraid and cast himself down at the foot of the throne. 
But the Eagle encouraged Etana to mount with him 
.still higher and they again set out. After every two 

' The legends of Etana have been edited by E. T. Harper, Beitrage 
zur Aesyriologie, Bd. II., pp. 391 ff., and Morris Jastrow, op. cit., 
Bd. III., pp. 363 ff. 



etana's journey to heaven. 185 

hours of his flight, the Eagle pointed to the earth 
below them, which grew smaller and smaller as they 
ascended, and at length they reached the Gate of 
Ann, Bel, and Ea. After resting for a while the 
Eagle proposed to Etana that he should carry him 
up still higher to the dwelling of the goddess Ishtar. 
Again they set out, but when they had flown for six 
hours Etana cried to the Eagle to stop. What mis- 
fortune then overtook the pair we do not know, for 
the text of the legend is broken ; what still remains, 
however, recounts that they fell headlong through the 
■air and were dashed upon the ground.^ 

' Another portion of tbe story of Etana refers to the subsequent 
fate of the Eagle ; and it may here be described as it illustrates a 
•class of Babylonian myths in which beasts and birds are represented 
as talking like men, and appealing to the gods fur help and advice. 
The story tells how the Eagle incurred tbe batred of the Serpent, and 
how the latter, with the help of the Sun-god, took his revenge. The 
fitory begins with the following lines : — 
" His heart prompted the Eagle . . . , 
" He considered, and his heart [prompted him . .] 
" To eat the young of his companion '. . . 

" Tbe Eagle opened his mouth and spake un!o his young, saying, 
'• ' The young of the Serpent will I eat . 
" I will ascend and [mount up] into heaven ; 
"I will swoop down upon the top of a tree and I will eat (the 

Serpent's) brood.' 
■"One of the young birds who was endowed with much wisdom, 

addressed the Eagle, his father : 
■" ' Do not eat, O my father, (for) the net of Sbamash is laid. 
" The snare and the ban of Shamash will fall upon thee and will 

catch thee. 
■" Whoso transgresseth the law of Shamash, will Shamash terribly 

[requite].' 
■" But he did not hearken to thcui, and gave no heed to the word of 
his yoirag one. 



1 86 THE EAGLE AND THE SERPENT. 

From tlie portion of the legend quoted in the note 
we learn the Eagle's fate, but we are not told what 
became of his friend, the hero Etana. Etana must 

" He swooped down and ate the young of the Serpent." 
The Serpent then repaired to Shamash the Suugod, who as judge 
of heaven and earth could not allow such a wrong to go unpunished, 
and he told him his story and appealed to him for justice. He de- 
scribed how his nest was set in a tree and how the Eagle espied it, 
and devoured his young, saying : — 

" He swooped down and ate [my young ones] ! 

" [Behold], O Shamash, the evil he hath done me. 

"Help, O Shamash ! Thy net is like unto the broad earth ; 

" Thy snare is like unto the distant heaven 1 

" Who hath ever escaped from thy net 1 

" Even Zu, the worker of evil, who raised the head of evil, [did not 
escape] 1 " 

The story of Zii which is here referred to by the Serpent has been 
p.artly recovered from other tablets fro?n Ashur-bani-pal's library, and 
is described later on in this chapter. We there read of Zu's treachery, 
and how he stole the Tablets of Destiny from Ann, and how he escaped 
with them to his mountain home. From the Serpent's reference to 
his fate we gather that the Sun-god succeeded in catching and 
punishing him. In the story of the Serpent and the Eagle, Shamash 
does not himself punish the Eagle, but explains to the Serpent a 
device by which he may obtain vengeance. The narrative con- 
tinues : — 

[" When he had listened to] the prayer of the Serpent, 

" Shamash opened liis mouth and to [the Serpent spake] : 

" ' Take the road and go [into the mountain], 

" And hide thyself in a wild [ox that is dead]. 

" Open its bowels, [tear open its belly], 

" And take up thy dwelling [in its belly]. 

" [All] the birds of heaven [shall swoop down], 

"And 

" The Eagle [shall come] with them, 

" And not knowing [thy plot (?)], 

" He will seek a piece of the flesh, moving swiftly, 

" And making for the hidden parts. 

" When he hath entered into the midst, do thou seize him by his 
wing. 



THE eagle's fate. 1 87 

have incurred the anger of the gods by attempting 
to mount to their abode, and it is possible that he 
was dashed to pieces when he fell with the Eagle 
to the ground from the height of heaven. 

" Tear off his wings, hia pinions, and his claws, 

" Pull him in pieces and cast him into a pit, . . . 

" That he may die a death from hunger and thirst.' 

"At the word of Shamash, the hero, the Serpent departed and went 

into the mountain. 
" And the Serpent came upon a wild ox, 
" And he opened its bowels, he tore open its belly, 
"And he took up his dwelling in its belly. 
" All the birds of heaven swooped down and ate of the flesh. 
" But the Eagle (at first) suspected his tyil purpose, 
" And with the flock of birds did not eat of the flesh. 
" Then the Eagle opened his mouth and spake unto his young : 
" ' Come I let us swoop down, and let us also eat of the flesh of this 

wild ox ! ' 
"One of the young birds, who was endowed with much wisdom, 
'• To turn aside [his] father . . . spake : 
[" ' O my Father], the Serpent lurks in [the flesh of] this wild ox 1 ' 

" But he did not hearken to them, and gave no heed to the word of 

his young one. 
" He swooped down and stood upon the wild ox. 
"The Eagle . . . examined the flesh, he looked about carefully 

before and behind him. 
"He again examined the flesh, he looked about carefully before 

and behind him. 
" Then, moving swiftly, he made for the hidden parts. 
" When he had entered into the midst, the serpent seized him by 

his wing." 
So far everything had fallen out as the Sun-god had foretold. The 
Eagle, now that he sees he is in his enemy's power, begs for mercy, 
and tries to bribe the Serpent. But the latter reminds him that an 
appeal to Shamash is irrevocable, and that if he did not carry out the 
Sun-god's bidding, he would himself share in the punishment which 
he now inflicts. 
" The Eagle opened [his mouth] and spake to the Serpent : 



l88 ADAPA AND THE SOUTH WIND. 

A legend is told of another ancient hero, named 
Adapa, who also journeyed to heaven, but in this case 
the hero did not seek to get there by his own devices, 
but was summoned thither by Anu, the god of heaven. 
The legend is preserved on one of the tablets that was 
found at Tell el-Amarna,^ and, in the form in which 
we have it, dates from the first half of the fifteenth 
century before Christ. 

The story narrates that Adapa, the son of Ea, was 
one day out on the sea in a boat, engaged in catching 
fish for his father's house. Suddenly Shutu, the South 
wind, blew and upset his boat and threw him into the 
water. Adapa was furious at this outrage, so he 
caught the South wind by her wings and broke them. 
In this passage the South wind is pictured as a winged 
female monster, and it is possible that in other respects 
also she was thought to resemble a bird. We have 
no representation of her, but it may be inferred that 
she was a creature of unprepossessing appearance, 
for the South wind was dreaded by the Babylonians 

" ' Have mercy upon me, and I will present thee with a gift 

according to thy pleasure.' 
" The Serpent opened his mouth and spake to the Eagle : 
" ' If I release thee, Shamash will . . . against us, 
" And thy punishment will be transferred to me, 
'• Which now, as a punishment, I execute on thee.' 
" So he tore off his wings, his pinions, and his talons, 
" He pulled him in pieces and cast him into a pit, . . . 
" And he died a death from hunger and thirst." 

' See above, p. 118 f. ; cf. Harper, BeiUage zur Assyriologie, Bd. II., 
pp. 418 ff. 




Ili'dtJ ol' tUe demon ol the South-west wind. (British JIuseum, No, 22,4ri9 : 



ADAPA IS SUMMONED TO HEAVEN. I9I 

inasmuch as it caused destructive floods in the low- 
lying regions of the Euphrates valley. The accompany- 
ing illustration of a kindred spirit, the demon of the 
South-west wind, is taken from a marble head in 
the British Museum, and it well represents the hideous 
conception formed by the Babylonians of the monster 
who caused destructive storms and tempests. 

When Adapa had broken Shutu's wings, the South 
wind was no longer able to blow over the earth. 
After seven days had passed, Anu, the god of heaven, 
asked his minister Ilabrat why the South wind had 
ceased to blow, and he told him that Adapa had 
broken her wiKgs. Anu thereupon summoned Adapa 
to heaven to answer the charge. Before he set out 
Adapa received instructions from his father Ea, who 
told him how, by putting on garments of mourning, 
he would propitiate Tammuz and Gishzida, the two 
gods who stood at the gate of heaven, and who, if 
approached with due deference, would secure for him 
a favourable reception before Anu. Ea also warned 
him that after he entered Anu's presence they would 
offer him "Meat of Death" and "Water of Death"; 
neither of these was he to touch. They would then 
bring him a garment and oil, and these he need not 
avoid ; the garment he might put on and with the oil 
he might anoint himself. 

On arriving at the gate of heaven Adapa duly 
secured the favour of Tammuz and Gishzida and was 



193 adapa's pardon. 

led into Ann's presence. Ann asked him why be 
had broken the wings of the South wind, and Adapa 
related how the South wind had upset his boat while 
he was fishing on the sea. Tammuz and Gishzida 
then interposed on Adapa's behalf, and at their words 
Ann's anger against Adapa was turned away. Then 
Anu, having pardoned Adapa for his offence, decided 
that, as he had seen the interior of heaven, he must 
be added to the company of the gods. He therefore 
commanded that they should bring Adapa "Meat of 
" Life " that he might eat. But Adapa would not eat 
the " Meat of Life " ; neither would he drink the 
" Water of Life " which was next placed before him. 
But when they brought him a garment he put it on, 
and when they offered him oil he anointed himself 
therewith. And Anu, when he saw that Adapa had 
not partaken of the " Meat of Life " and the " "Water 
" of Life," asked him, saying, " Come, Adapa, why 
" dost thou neither eat nor drink ? Por now thou 
"canst not live." And Adapa answered that he had 
refused to eat and drink, because Ea his lord had so 
commanded him. The reason which prompted Ea to 
lay these injunctions upon his son seems to have been 
that he feared the gods would seek to slay Adapa. 
Anu, on the other hand, decided to make Adapa 
immortal, and did not offer him deadly food as Ea had 
predicted. Thus Adapa, through his father's suspicions, 
missed the privilege of enjoying immortality. 



THE TABLETS OF DESTINY. 193 

In the legends of Etana and Adapa we have stories 
of mortals who by presumptuous acts brought them- 
selves into conflict with the gods. Among the gods 
themselves, however, ambition was not absent, and 
in the legend of Zu we read how one of the lesser 
deities aimed at obtaining the control of the whole 
company of the gods.^ It will be remembered that 
Marduk was identified in course of time with the 
older god Bel, or Enlil,^ and in the great legend of 
the creation we are told that he captured the Tablets 
of Destiny from Kingu, the captain of the host of 
Tiamat. In the following legend we read how at a 
later time Z^ stole them from Bel and carried them 
off to his mountain. The legend runs as follows : — 

" His eyes beheld the symbols of Bel's dominion, 

" The crown of his sovereignty, and the robe of his 
godhead. 

" Zu gazed at his divine Tablets of Destiny, 

" And he gazed at the father of the gods, the god of 
Duranki, 

" And a longing for Bel's dominion was held fast in 
his heart. 

" ' I will take the Tablets of the gods, 

" And I will direct the oracles of all the gods. 

" I will establish my throne and dispense my 
commands. 

" I will rule all the Spirits of Heaven.' • 

' Seo Harper, op. cit, pp. 408 ff. ' See above, pp. 18 ff. 

BAB. EEL. 



194 ZU'S THEFT. 

" And his heart meditated battle 

" At the entrance of the hall, where he beheld as he 
waited the dawn of the day. 

" Now when Bel was pouring out the clear water, 

" And his diadem, was taken off and lay upon the 
throne, 

" (Zu) seized the Tablets of Destiny, 

"He took Bel's dominion, the ^ power of giving 
commands. 

" Then Zu fled away and hid himself in his 
mountain." 

The gods were dismayed at the theft, and Bsl strode 
through the hall in rage. Then Anu, the god of 
heaven, addressed the gods, his sons, and called for 
a champion, who should recover the Tablets. There- 
upon the gods called upon Eamman to be their 
champion, and Anu promised him honour and power 
should he succeed. But Eamman refused the offer, as 
did also two other deities when asked. Who eventually 
conquered Zu and recovered the Tablets is not quite 
certain, for the end of the legend is missing. From 
a passage in the legend of Etana, however, it may 
be conjectured that the Sun-god undertook the task, 
and vanquished Zu by catching him in his net. 

Such are the principal legends and stories, as far 

as we know them, that were told in Babylonia con- 

*cerning the gods and the heroes of olden time. That 

tliey were not idle tales, but had a religious significance 



RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE LEGENDS. I9S 

for the people among whom we find them, is what 
might be inferred from a comparison of them with 
the mythologies of other nations. We have, moreover, 
evidence to this effect in some of the poems that have 
been already described. In the poem which recounts 
the descent of Ishtar into the underworld, we saw 
reason to believe that it was recited in connection 
with the yearly festival held in commemoration of 
the death of Tammuz. The introduction to the long 
poem which records the history of Gilgamesh stated 
that a knowledge of the hero's achievements would 
bring prosperity to the man who made himself ac- 
quainted with them, and it is probable that this state- 
ment was not regarded as a mere conventional preface, 
but was implicitly believed. It is true that in the 
legend we are not told that Gilgamesh was raised to 
the company of the gods, but he was undoubtedly 
regarded as a god in popular belief. There is a 
prayer in the British Museum ^ in which a sick man 
beseeches Gilgamesh to cure him of his sickness, and 
he addresses him as the " perfect king, the judge of 
"the Anunnaki, the great arbiter among men who 
"orders the four quarters of heaven, the governor 
"of the world, and the lord of the regions of the 
" earth " ; the sick man also exclaims, " Thou art a 
"judge, and like unto a god thou givest decisions." 
It is clear therefore that to Gilgamesh was ascribed 
' Sm. 1371 + Sm. 1877. 



196 LEGENDS AS AMULETS. 

no small authority and power. The estimation in 

which both he and the hero Etana were held is also 

attested by the fact that the determinative for " god " 

is always placed before their names. 

A further piece of evidence that these mythological 

compositions were put to very practical uses is afforded 

by certain tablets which have been found inscribed 

with legends concerning the chief Plague-god of the 

Babylonians/ describing the destruction which he and 

his attendant deity Ishum spread upon the earth. 

Both gods are therein pictured as warriors who held 

bloody sway in the cities of Babylonia, and undertook 

military expeditions into distant lands. These legends 

are inscribed on several tablets, and the last one of 

the series recounts how the ainger of the Plague-god 

was at length appeased, and ends with a speech of 

the Plague-god, in which he promises protection and 

prosperity to all those who make known his wondrous 

deeds. He continues, " Should I be angry, and should 

"the seven-fold god cause destruction; the dagger of 

"pestilence shall not approach the house wherein this 

"tablet is set, and it shall remain unharmed." This 

last section of the poem, "including the passage just 

quoted, has been found on two interesting tablets in 

the British Museum.^ At the top of each tablet is a 

small projection in which a hole has been bored, and 

1 The name of this god is generally read as Dibbaira, though Ura 
and Girra are also possible readings. 
' See Zeitschri/t fur Assyriologie, Bd. xi. pp. 50 S. 



NATURE-MYTHS. I97 

through it was passed a cord by which it might be 
suspended. There is no doubt that these tablets were 
hung up in the entrance of a house, and that they 
served as amulets for keeping off the plague. Thus 
there are many indications that the myths and legends 
of the gods played an important part in the practical 
religion and worship of the Babylonians. 

To decide in what manner these various legends of 
the gods arose, and to trace the changes which they 
underwent in the long course of Babylonian history, 
would result in an interesting, but certainly a very 
speculative, enquiry. Conjecture, based mainly on the 
internal evidence furnished by the myths themselves 
in the forms in which they have come down to us, 
naturally cannot lead to very definite results; but 
one broad conclusion may be drawn from a study of 
the tablets with at least some probability of its 
being correct. It can hardly be disputed that changes 
in the aspect of nature suggested many of the legends 
about the gods. Perhaps the clearest instance of this 
explanation of natural processes by legend is presented 
in the legends of the Plague-god; the campaigns he 
undertook, and the bloody battles he waged, were 
doubtless suggested by the ravages of disease which 
were regarded as his handiwork. The descent of 
Ishtar into the underworld and the languishing of 
all nature in consequence, which was followed by her 
restoration to earth and the renewal of the powers 



198 HISTORY AND LEGEND. 

of men and beasts, was clearly intended to explain 
the decay of nature in the autumn, and the quicken- 
ing of the earth in the spring. Zu's treacherous usur- 
pation of Bel's sovereignty may perhaps be based on 
the sudden overwhelming of the sun by storm and 
clouds. 

There is another element in many of these legends 
which must not be lost sight of, and that is the sub- 
stratum of historical fact which underlies the story, 
and was the nucleus around which it gathered. Echoes 
from the history of the remote past may perhaps be 
traced in such episodes as the expedition of Gilgamesh 
and Ea-bani against Khumbaba king of Elam, as well 
as in some of the conflicts described in the Plague-god 
legends. The growth of legends around the figures 
of prominent heroes is common in every race that has 
a history, and this was particularly the- case in Baby- 
lonia. A number of legends, for instance, have come 
down to us concerning certain ancient Babylonian 
kings, of whose historical existence we have abundant 
proof from other sources. Sargon I. was an actual 
king, who ruled in the city of Agade about B.C. 3800, 
and many of whose inscriptions have recently been 
found at Nippur. Yet we possess a legend concerning 
this monarch, in which he tells how his mother set 
him floating on the Euphrates in a basket made of 
rushes, how Akki the gardener rescued him and brought 
him up as his own son, and how while he was still 



LEGENDS OF EARLY KINGS. 199 

a gardener the goddess Ishtar loved him and eventually 
set him over the kingdom which he ruled. The text 
of the legend of Sargon was a long one, but little more 
than this story of his youth has been preserved. It 
will at least suffice to show how myth and legend 
gathered around the figures of famous kings and heroes 
of old time. The legend of Sargon is not a solitary 
example of this process. The so-called " Cuthseaa 
" legend of Creation " describes a legend of an early king 
of Cuthah/ and fragments of similar myths have been 
found in Ashur-bani- pal's library which recoujit the 
legendary deeds of Naram-Sin, the son of Sargon, who 
lived about B.C. 3750, and of Dungi, king of Ur, about 
B.C. 2500, and of Khammurabi, king of Babylon, about 
B.C. 2200, and of Nebuchadnezzar I., king of Babylon 
about B.C. 1120. The tablets which contain these 
legends are very fragmentary, but they illustrate the 
process by which historical personages in course of 
time became demi-gods and legendary heroes. 
> See above, pp. 92 ff. 



( 200 ) 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE DUTY OF MAN TO HIS GOD AND TO HIS 
NEIGHBOUE. 

In thei, three preceding chapters the principal legends 
and myths that have been found in Babylonian litera- 
ture have been described, and the extracts which have 
been quoted from them will have enabled the reader to 
form a conception of what the more powerful Baby- 
lonian gods were believed to be like. We have seen 
Anu administering the powers of heaven, we have seen 
Bel upon the earth destroying mankind in his anger 
and directing the oracles of all the gods, and Ea in the 
Deep regulating the affairs of his own household and 
revealing secrets by his hidden wisdom. Shamash, the 
Sun-god, has been seen in his character as the just 
judge of the whole earth, hearing the appeals of such as 
had suffered wrong, and giving help and advice to those 
who needed it. The great goddess Ishtar has been 
revealed in two characters. She has appeared as a 
cruel and wanton lover, persecuting those who yielded 
to her passion and seeking revenge upon those who 



A MAN S SPIRITUAL FOES. 201 

refused her love ; she has also been seen in her gentler 
character as a devoted wife, descending to the under- 
world to seek her husband. Other deities have also 
been described in the exercise of their own peculiar 
functions, especially Marduk, the city-god of Babylon, 
who appears as the leader and the champion of the 
gods when they are in distress. 

In addition to these greater gods many other deities, 
of less power and importance, have been incidentally 
mentioned in the course of the legends. These, how- 
ever, scarcely give an adequate idea of the number of 
supernatural beings who were believed to exist in the 
heavens and upon the earth, and beneath the earth. 
The legends that have been described are chiefly con- 
cerned with the doings of the more powerful gods and 
the great heroes of antiquity, and they naturally do not 
■deal with the sprites, and goblins, and spectres, which 
were believed to haunt and harass a man in his daily 
life and in the performance of his ordinary duties. 
For the ancient Babylonian moved in a world peopled 
by demons and spirits, whom he could not see, but 
whose influence at any moment might cause him mis- 
fortune, sickness, or death. Many of these spirits were 
actively hostile to man and waged an incessant warfare 
against him. Others, though less actively hostile, were 
to be no less feared, for at any time a man might un- 
wittingly incur their wrath by some act which trenched 
upon their jealously guarded rights. An ill-omened 



202 BABYLONIAN DEMONS. 

word, or the eating or drinking of an impure thing, 
was sufficient to rouse tlie wrath of some one of 
these beings; and, although the victim might have 
committed no intentional act of disobedience, he had 
to endure their persecution, sometimes without even 
a knowledge of its cause. These beings were conceived 
to be of hideous and repulsive appearance, often uniting 
in strange combinations the bodies and limbs of various 
birds and beasts. The accompanying illustration is a 
specimen of an evil Babylonian demon, taken from a clay 
figure in the British Museum. The head of the monster 
was no doubt partly suggested by that of a lion, and 
its ferocious aspect betokens ill to the man who might 
have the misfortune to place himself within its power. 

In order to realize the great number and variety of 
such beings it would be necessary to turn to the spells 
and incantations and magical formulae which occupy 
so large a place in the religious literature of the Baby^ 
lonians. To ignore this lower aspect of the belief of 
the Babylonians would be to give a one-sided and 
incomplete picture of their religion, but Babylonian 
magic does not fall within the limits of the present 
volume. We are here concerned with the higher side 
of the Babylonian religion, and, having already described 
the general character of the greater gods, it now remains 
to enquire in what relation man stood to these great 
deities, and also to what extent his religious beliefs 
affected his duty to his fellow man. 




A Babylonian demon. (British Jluseiun, Ko. 32,4od.) 



THE CONCEPTION OF GOD. 20$ 

It has already been stated that, so far as we can 
see from their religious literature, the Babylonians had 
no conception of a single supreme and all-powerful 
God. In this matter they did not resemble the ancient 
Egyptians, who believed that such a being existed 
above the company of the gods and on a different 
plane from them. The Egyptian held that this all- 
powerful God could manifest his might in the persons 
of the gods of various departments of nature, but at 
the same time they believed that he was the ultimate 
cause of the entire universe and was the creator and 
director of both gods and men.^ The Babylonians 
knew no such supreme deity, but it should be added 
that some few passages in their inscriptions perhaps 
indicate a glimmering belief in that direction. 

The Babylonian word for "god" is ilu, and the 
ideograph for the word is always placed as a determi- 
native particle before the names o£ deities. One of 
its most common uses is in the plural, in the phrase 
Hani rabUti, "the great gods," an expression which 
denotes the company of the great gods as distinguished 
from the host of lesser deities and spirits. When ilu 
occurs in the singular it is usually in the course of 
the description of some particular deity, as in the 
phrases ilu rahu, "a great god," and ilu ali-ia, "god 
"of my city," applied to the god Marduk. In other 
passages it takes a pronominal suffix, as in the phrases 

' See Budge, Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life, chap. I. 



206 THE WORD "ILU." 

ili-ia, " my god," ili-ha, " thy god " ; or it is coupled 
with the substantive ishtar, "goddess"; and in both 
these cases it is clear that the reference is made to 
some particular deity. There are, however, a few pas- 
sages in which ilu stands entirely by itself, and where 
it is possible that it should be translated as "god" 
without any qualifying phrase. Such a passage occurs 
towards the end of the poem of the ancient king of 
Cuthah, which has been described in Chapter III.^ 
Here the king, after narrating his own history, pro- 
ceeds to offer advice to any future ruler, and he 
addresses his words to any " king, or ruler, or prince, 
" or any one whatsoever, whom the god shall call to rule 
" over the kingdom." No particular god is mentioned, 
and ilu occurs entirely by itself; it is possible, how- 
ever, to refer the phrase to Nergal, the god of Cuthah, 
in whose temple the legend is preserved. In any case, 
this use of ilu is of rare occurrence, and it would be 
rash to rely on this evidence alone for proving that 
the Babylonians conceived an abstract and supreme 
deity apart from the separate and distinct gods of the 
various divisions of the natural world. Perhaps the 
Assyrians approached nearer to such a conception than 
the Babylonians, for their god Ashur was the symbol 
of their own national existence, and, although they 
retained the worship of the other gods from the Baby- 
lonians, they assigned to Ashur a position of supremacy 
' See above p. 95. 



MARDUK THE INTERCESSOR. 207 

among them and ascribed to him many of the attributes 
which belonged properly to the older gods. 

Among the Babylonians the god Marduk in the 
course of time acquired a position of peculiar interest. 
As the god of Babylon he was naturally from the first 
of easy access to the inhabitants of his own city, and 
this intimacy with his own people was gradually 
extended until we find him appearing before his father 
Ea in the character of mediator and intercessor on 
behalf of men. We have already seen how Marduk 
was regarded as the creator of the world and of man- 
kind, and it is in accordance with this tradition that 
he should have been thought to use his influence on 
behalf of the creatures whom he had made. Marduk's 
character as intercessor is well illustrated by the follow- 
ing extract from a religious text, the recital of which 
would procure relief for a sick man and remove 
the evil speU by which he was troubled. The text 
reads — 

"An evil curse like a demon has beset the man, 

" Sorrow and trouble have fallen upon him, 

" Evil sorrow has fallen upon him, 

" An evil curse, a spell, a sickness. 

" The evil curse has slain that man like a lamb. 

" His god has departed from his body, 

" His guardian goddess has left his side. 

" He is covered by sorrow and trouble as with a 
garment, and he is overwhelmed ; 



2o8 MARDUK THE FRIEND OF MAN. 

" Then Marduk beheld him, 

" And he entered into the house of his father Ea and 

he said unto him : 
" ' my father, an evil curse like a demon has beset 

the man.' 
" Twice he spake unto him, (and he added) : 
" ' I know not what that man has done, nor whereby 

he may be cured.' 
" And Ea made answer to his son, Marduk, (saying) : 
" • my son, what dost thou not know 1 what can I 

tell thee more ? 
" Marduk, what dost thou not know ? what can I 

tell thee more ? 
" What I know, thoii also knowest. 
" Go, my son, Marduk, 
" Take him to the house of purification, 
" Dissolve the spell from upon him, remove the spell 

from upon him.' " 
The prominent position of Marduk in the company 
of the gods is amply attested in the numerous hymns ■ 
and prayers that have been found addressed to him. 
Prayers and hymns, however, of a very similar nature 
were addressed to the other great gods, and these were 
believed to detract in no way from the deference due 
to Marduk or to any other deity. It seems to be clear 
that each god, when worshipped in his own temple, was 
regarded with profound reverence and could even be 
credited with sovereign power over the other gods 



A man's own god and goddess. 209 

■without exciting their jealousy, and without laying his 
worshippers open to rebuke. 

In the description of the sick man's evil plight, quoted 
above, two lines occur in which it is stated that " his 
" god has departed from his body, his guardian goddess 
" has left his side." The explanation of these two lines 
brings us to what is perhaps the most interesting, and 
at the same time the most characteristic, feature of the 
relationship which existed between the ancient Baby- 
lonian and his god. We have seen that Marduk 
appears in general as the protector and the friend of 
mankind, but every Babylonian had in addition two 
divine protectors, with whom his fortunes were most 
intimately connected. Each man had Lis own patron 
god and goddess, who made his welfare their peculiar 
charge, and to whose service he was specially devoted. 
In any trouble or affliction he would first turn to these 
two deities and implore them to exert their influence 
on his behalf.' The mere fact that he had fallen into 
adversity, however, was often proof that his god and 
goddess were temporarily estranged, and, should this 
be the case, it was necessary for him first to pacify their 
wrath and then to secure their assistance. What prin- 
ciples actuated the Babylonians in their choice of patron 
deities are not clearly indicated in their religious litera- 
ture. It is not unreasonable to suppose that a child's- 
parents dedicated it at its birth to the care of some god 
and goddess, and that the choice was left entirely to. 

BAB. EEL. -P 



2IO BELIEF IN GUARDIAN DEITIES. 

them. We may be sure that whatever deities were 
selected they were among those who had temples or 
shrines in the city in which the parents lived, and who 
would therefore be in a position to effectually protect 
their offspring. The belief in guardian deities is 
intimately connected with the magical side of Baby- 
lonian religion, and the pacification of a man's angry 
god and goddess was one of the commonest objects to 
which spells and incantations were applied. It may be 
inferred therefore that the belief in these protecting 
gods goes back to a remote period in Babylonian history. 
In his combat with the invisible demons and spirits in 
the midst of which a man was believed to live it would 
have gone hard with him if he had been left to his own 
unaided efforts. His natural protectors were his own 
patron god and goddess, and he was sure of their con- 
stant care and protection, if he did nothing to offend 
them or estrange them from him. 

When misfortune or sickness fell upon a man and he 
perceived that his patron deities were offended with him, 
his first act was to hasten to the temple of his god and 
goddess and secure the services of a priest who might 
aid him in regaining their favour. The design most 
frequently engraved upon Babylonian and Assyrian 
cylinder-seals is a representation of the owner of the 
seal being led by a priest into the presence of his god ; 
and it is clear that the priest's mediation was necessary 
in order that the offended deity might be duly appeased. 



PRIESTLY MEDIATION. 211 

Frequently upon the seals an attendant is represented 
walking behind the owner and bearing offerings into 
the temple, and, when these had been handed over to 
the priest, the penitent was ready to be led into the 
god's presence. The priest then took him by the hand 
and both priest and penitent raised their other hands as 
a symbol of worship and supplication. In this order 
the man was led into the presence of his offended god. 
If he was sore afflicted with disease, or oppressed by his 
sense of guilt, he would sit or lie upon the ground, and 
with bitter sighs and groans would declare his sin and 
pray for absolution. Among the religious works of the 
Babylonians and Assyrians a number of tablets have 
been found which served as service-books for the use of 
priest and penitent when they had entered the presence 
of the offended deity.^ In these service-books the priest 
sometimes addresses the god and describes the sad con- 
dition of the man who wishes to make his confession ; 
at other times the penitent himself takes up the prayer. 
The following is an extract from one of these composi- 
tions : — 

The priest : " In sorrow there he sits ; With ^ cries 
" of affliction, in trouble of heart. With bitter tears 
" in bitter sorrow, Like the doves he moans grievously, 
" night and day. Unto his merciful god, like a wild cow, 

' Of. Zimmern, Babylonische Busspsalmen, Leipzig, 1885. 
^ In this and the following extracts the capital letter marks the 
beginning of a new line in the text. 



212 CONFESSION OF SIN. 

" he cries, He mates a grievous sighing. Before his god 
" he casts down his face in supplication, He weeps, 
" that Ire may approach, that nothing may hold him 
" back." 

The penitent: "My deed will I declare, my 
" deed which cannot be declared. My words will I 
" repeat, my words which cannot be repeated. O my 
'* god, my deed will I declare, my deed which cannot be 
" declared." 

In another prayer a penitent addresses his god and 
goddess together, and prays to be purified from his sin 
in the following words : — 

" my god, \vho art angry, .accept my prayer. O my 
"goddess, who art angry, receive my supplication. 
" Eeceive my supplication and let thy spirit be at rest. 
" O my goddess, look with pity on me and accept my 
" supplication. Let my sins be forgiven, let my trans- 
" gressions be blotted out. Let the ban be torn away, 
" let the bonds be loosened. Let the seven winds carry 
" away my sighs. I will rend away my wickedness, 
" let the bird bear it to the heavens. Let the fish carry 
" off my misery, let the river sweep it away. Let the 
'•'beast of the field take it from me. Let the flowina 
" waters of the river wash me clean." 

Sometimes the god or goddess to whom the prayer is 
addressed is mentioned by name, as in the followin" 
extract, in which the penitent submits himself entirely 
to the will of the goddess Ishtar and seeks to arouse her 



MISERY OF THE PENITENT, 213 

pity by a reference to Ms condition of abject misery. 
He makes his appeal to the goddess as follows : — 

" mother of the gods, who fulfils their commands, 
" lady of mankind, who makes the green herb to 
"spring up, Who created all things, who guides the 
"whole of creation, mother Ishtar, whose side no 
"god can approach, exalted lady, whose command 
"is mighty, A prayer will I utter. That which appears 
"good unto her, may she do unto me! my lady, 
" from the days of my youth I have been much yoked 
" to misfortune. Food have I not eaten, weeping was 
"my nourishment. Water have I not drunk, tears 
" were my drink. My heart never rejoices, my spirit 
"is never glad." 

A man's appeal to his god and goddess was not 
always successful, for his sin may have been so great 
that his petitions for forgiveness were not sufficient in 
themselves to appease their wrath. In such a case, 
when the penitent found that his appeals remained 
unanswered, he had recourse to some more powerful 
god or goddess by whose assistance he sought to bring 
a,bout his reconciliation with his patron deities. The 
following is an extract from a service-book which was 
intended for the use of priest and penitent upon such 
an occasion : — 

The penitent : " I, thy servant, full of sighs, cry unto 
"thee. Whosoever has sinned, thou acceptest his 
" fervent prayer. The man on whom thou lookest in 

BAB. EEL. p 3 



214 THE ANGER OF PATRON DEITIES. 

"pity, that man lives, ruler of all things, lady of 
" mankind, merciful one, whose turning is propitious, 
" who acceptest supplication." 

The priest: "Since his god and his goddess are 
"angry with him, he cries unto thee. Turn to him 
" thy countenance and take his hand." 

The penitent: "Beside thee there is no deity who 
"guides aright.. In justice look on me with pity 
" and accept my supplication. Declare my forgiveness 
" and let thy spirit be appeased. When, O my lady, 
" will thy countenance be turned ? I moan like the 
" doves, I satiate myself with sighs." 

The priest : " With pain and grief his spirit is 
" oppressed. He sheds tears, he utters cries of woe." 

It happened sometimes that a man through his 
transgressions offended some powerful deity, while he 
still retained the help and sympathy of his own god 
and goddess. In such a case he made his appeal at 
the shrine of the deity he had offended, and he believed 
that his own god and goddess made intercession for 
him at his side. The following extract is taken from 
a prayer to be delivered by a man who had offended 
Shamash the Sun-god and his wife Ai, and who 
sought to appease their wrath, while his own god and 
goddess added their voice to his appeal. The priest 
first described the man's humility and grief; the ex- 
tract reads as follows : — 

The priest: "By his face, which through tears he 



THEIR HELP IN TROUBLE. 215 

"does not raise, he makes lamentation to thee. By 
" his feet, on which fetters are set, he makes lamentation 
" to thee. By his hand, which is spent through weari- 
" ness, he makes lamentation to thee. By his breast, 
" which utters cries as of a flute, he makes lamentation 
" to thee." 

The Penitent : " lady, through bitterness of heart 
" I cry to thee in sorrow : Declare my forgiveness. O 
" lady, say to thy servant, ' It is enough.' Let thy heart 
" be appeased. Bestow mercy on thy servant who is 
"in affliction. Turn thy countenance towards him, 
" accept his supplication. Turn in mercy towards thy 
" servant, with whom thou wast angry. lady, my 
" hands are bound, I prostrate (?) myself before thee. 
" Intercede for me before the mighty hero, Shamash, 
' thy beloved spouse. That for a life of many days 
"I may walk before thee. My god has prayed to 
"thee, that thy heart may be at rest ; My goddess has 
"made supplication to thee, that thy spirit may be 
" appeased." 

A penitent usually trusted to his condition of grief 
and misery to move the pity of an angry god or goddess. 
Sometimes, however, the priest would make a reference 
to the offerings which the penitent would make, when 
he was pardoned and restored to health and prosperity. 
Such an. inducement to pardon A penitent is urged 
by a priest upon an angry god in the following 
extract : — 



2l6 CONCEPTION OF SIN. 

" Open his bonds, remove his fetters. Make bright 
" his countenance, commend him to his god, his creator. 
" Give thy servant life, that he may praise thy power. 
" That he may bow down before thy greatness in all 
" dwellings. Eeceive his gift, accept his purchase- 
" money. That, he may walk before thee in a land of 
" peace. That with overflowing abundance he may fill 
" thy shrine, That in thy temple his offerings may be 
"set, That with oil as with water he may anoint thy 
" bolts, And that with oil in abundance he may make 
" thy threshold overflow." 

No doubt in the early periods of their religious 
development, the offences which the Babylonian com- 
mitted were of a formal and ceremonial character. 
Their sufferings might be due to the infringement 
of a religious ordinance, or to the eating or drinking 
of an impure thing, or to an ill-omened word or action. 
There is no doubt, however, that in the course of 
time moral considerations tinged their earlier beliefs. 
Misfortune was still believed to be the result of sin 
and transgression, but the character of the sin was 
gradually changed. Injustice and evil-doing were 
believed to anger a man's god as much as offences 
against his own peculiar rites, and in this way a 
man's duty towards his god led to a conception of the 
duty he owed towards his fellow man. The belief 
that oppression and injustice were followed by 
material misfortune is well attested in a document from 



GROWTH OF MORALITY. 217 

Ashur-bani-pal's library, which contains a number of 
warnings to a king against injustice, and which unequivo- 
cally states that any act of that description would 
recoil upon himself or upon his land.^ The beginning 
of this tablet reads as follows : — 

" If the king does not give heed to justice, his people 
" shall be overthrown and his land shall be brought to 
"confusion. 

" If he gives no heed to the law of his land, Ea, the 
" king of destinies, shall change his destiny, and shall 
" visit him with misfortune. 

" If he gives no heed to his nobles, his days shall 
" (not) be long. 

" If he gives no heed to the wise-men, his land shall 
" revolt against him. 

" If he gives heed to wisdom (?), the king shall behold 
" the stren^theninar of the land. 

"If he gives heed to the commands of Ea, the great 
" gods shall endow him with true knowledge and dis- 
" cernment. 

" If he treats a man of Sippar with injustice and 
" gives a harsh decision, Shamash, the judge of heaven 
" and earth, shall give a harsh decision in his land, 
" and shall appoint a just prince and a just judge in 
" place of injustice. 

" If the men of Nippur come to him for judgment 

' The text is published in Cuneiform Iiiscriiitioiis of Wetiern Asia, 
Vol. IV., pi. 48. 



2l8 A MAN'S DUTIES TO HIS NEIGHBOUR. 

" and he accepts gifts and treats them with injustice, 
" Bel, the lord of the world, shall bring a foreign foe 
" against him and shall overthrow his army, and his 
" prince and his leader they shall hunt as outcasts (?) 
" through the streets. 

" If the men of Babylon take money with them and 
"give bribes, and he favours the cause of (these) 
"Babylonians and turns to (their) entreaty, Marduk, 
"the lord of heaven and' earth, shall bring his foe 
"against him, and shall give his goods and his posses- 
" sions to his enemy. And the men of Nippur, Sippar, 
"or Babylon who do these things shall be cast into 
" prison." 

In this tablet it is clearly stated that the gods would 
punish oppression and injustice with misfortune, and 
there is evidence of this belief in other Babylonian 
documents of a religious nature. From a series of 
magical incantations we learn that a wrong committed 
by a man against his neighbour carried with it a 
punishment no less severe than that which accom- 
panied any offence against a ceremonial code.^ The 
various sins which a man might commit are enume- 
rated in the form of questions, and the following 
extract will serve to indicate their general character : — 

" Has he estranged the father from his son ? Has 
"he estranged the son from his father? Has he 
" estranged the mother from her daughter ? Has ho 
' Cf. Zimmern, Die BeechwBrungstafeln Schurpu, pp. 3 ff. 



LIST OF OFFENCES. 219 

" estranged the daughter from her mother ? Has 
"he estranged the mother-in-law from her daughter- 
" in-law 1 Has he estranged the daughter-in-law 
" from her mother-in-law ? Has he estranged the 
" brother from his brother ? Has he estranged the 
" friend from his friend ? Has he estranged the com- 
" panion from his companion ? Has he refused to set 
"a captive free, or has he refused to loose one who 
" was bound ? Has he shut out a prisoner from the 
"light? Has he said of a captive 'Hold him fast/ 
" or of one who was bound has he said, ' Strengthen 
" his bonds ? ' Has he committed a sin against a god, 
" or has he committed a sin agaiast a goddess ? Has 
" he offended a god, or has he held a goddess in light 
" esteem ? Is his sin against his own god, or is his 
" sin against his own goddess ? Has he done violence 
"to one older than himself, or has he conceived 
" hatred against an elder brother ? Has he held his 
" father and mother in contempt, or has he insulted his 
" elder sister ? Has he been generous in small things, 
" but avaricious in great matters ? Has he said ' yea ' 
" for ' nay ' ? Has he said ' nay ' for ' yea ' ? Has he 
" spoken of unclean things, or [has he counselled] dis- 
" obedience ? Has he uttered wickedness ? . . . Has 
" he used false scales ? . . . Has he accepted a wrong 
" account, or has he refused a rightful sum ? Has 
" he disinherited a legitimate son, or has he recognized 
" an illegitimate son ? Has he set up a false landmark. 



220 A HIGH MORAL CODE. 

" or has he refused to set up a true landmark ? Has 
" he removed bound, border, or landmark 1 Has he 
"broken into his neighbour's house? Has he drawn 
"near his neighbour's wife? Has he shed his neigl- 
" hour's blood ? Has he stolen his neighbour's gar- " 
" ment ? " 

Here we have enumerated a comprehensive series of 
sins and offences, the commission of any one of which 
was considered sufficient to bring down upon a man 
the wrath of his god. Taken together they prove that 
in the seventh century before Christ, if not earlier, 
the Babylonians and Assyrians possessed a system of 
morality which in many respects resembled that of the 
descendants of Abraham. 



THE END. 



TKINTED BY WILLIAN CLOWES AND S0K6, tlBllTED, LONDON AND BECOLES. 



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